【Brief Introduction of the Case】
Chen mou and Yu mou are husband and wife, the two in Shaanxi Province, Dali County, Fanjia Town, Xiaxin Village contracted 4,000 acres of fish ponds for aquaculture, from Jingyan County, Sichuan Province, Jiyi, Baowu, Zhoupo and other towns to organize more than 20 migrant workers to work, due to difficulties in capital turnover, arrears of migrant workers wages of more than 800,000 yuan. In addition, because Mr. and Mrs. Chen owe more than 9 million yuan to a feed company, the feed company, as another creditor, has applied to freeze Chen's account through a foreign court, and the balance on the account is only more than 1 million yuan, which is not enough to pay the feed arrears. Guo Mou and 20 other migrant workers in order to fight for their legitimate rights and interests, to avoid the account balance after being enforced by the foreign court into the defense of the door, many times to the municipal government petition, under the reasonable guidance of the department, migrant workers to the Jingyan County Legal Aid Center to apply for legal aid, hoping to get paid as soon as possible before the Spring Festival. After understanding the facts of the case, checking and analyzing the wage settlement slip signed and approved by Mr. and Mrs. Chen, after careful verification, the Jingyan County Legal Aid Center opened a green channel for migrant workers to protect their rights, immediately accepted and assigned them, and the lawyer handling the case entered the case handling procedure at the first time, understood the case facts, collected evidence, wrote a civil complaint, and submitted a complaint to the court on the same day.
After the court filed the case, it actively docked with the first court in the field, suspended the implementation of the funds in Chen's account, and the first court in the field claimed that the wage claims of migrant workers and the claims of the feed company were paid in proportion to the same. Because the existing funds are not enough to pay all the creditor's rights, which will damage the interests of migrant workers, in order to completely solve the problem of migrant workers' wage arrears, the staff of the assistance center and the Bureau of Letters and Visits and other departments have carried out door-to-door delivery of the law, educated Chen and his wife on the law, and actively promoted the formation of a repayment plan. On the one hand, it explains the state's crackdown on wage arrears, the legal consequences of malicious wage arrears, and the policy orientation of the priority of migrant workers' wage claims, and guides Mr. and Mrs. Chen to communicate and reconcile with other creditors to achieve priority payment of migrant workers' wages; on the other hand, it persuades them to put themselves in the shoes of migrant workers to understand the difficulties of migrant workers, and strive to raise funds through multiple channels with partners to pay arrears of wages as soon as possible.
In the end, after the linkage and cooperation of the departments, the cooperation force was promoted to promote the three parties of migrant workers, debtors and other creditors to reach a consensus, the debtor Chen and his wife actively raised and realized the repayment funds, the migrant workers promised to grace the repayment period, and other creditors appropriately gave way to the proportion of migrant workers' wages. After mediation by the Jingyan County People's Court, Mr. and Mrs. Chen reached a mediation agreement with 20 migrant workers, and Mr. and Mrs. Chen paid the wages of the migrant workers before January 4, 2022. After getting the mediation letter, the migrant worker litigation representative sincerely expressed his gratitude to the case-handling lawyer: "Thank you so much, for providing free legal help, running so many trips for our business, doing your best, now the policy of migrant workers is really good, otherwise where to solve it so quickly, now I can finally rest assured ..."
【Case Review】
The case was satisfactorily resolved thanks to the fact that migrant workers, debtors and other creditors were able to understand and make concessions to each other on the basis of safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests, and at the same time, through the relevant departments to explain the law and reason, clarify the risks of their own claims, and reserve sufficient space for mediation.
1. The legal consequences of malicious non-payment of wages
Since the addition of the crime of refusing to pay labor remuneration, it has effectively cracked down on the criminal acts of evading the payment of labor remuneration by transferring property, fleeing, or having the ability to pay labor remuneration, but there are still some labor employers who believe that the arrears of wages to migrant workers belong to the civil category, and they choose to flee and hide when they are insolvent and unable to perform the creditors' claims of migrant workers, but they do not know that criminal liability has been triggered.
In the case of real inability to pay, does evasion of labor remuneration constitute malicious wage arrears? According to the provisions of the Notice on Strengthening the Investigation and Handling of Criminal Cases of Suspected Refusal to Pay Labor Remuneration, the relevant departments notify the wage defaulter to go to the designated place within the specified time to cooperate in solving the problem, but if he fails to cooperate in the solution, it is regarded as "using the method of evasion to evade the payment of the labor remuneration of the worker", which shows whether it constitutes malicious wage arrears without the premise of having the ability to pay, and if the employer is unable to pay the labor remuneration, it should actively cooperate with the relevant departments to investigate, actively negotiate with multiple parties to raise funds, and if it chooses a negative attitude to deal with it , will face the risk of civil conversion. In this case, the two employers fully realized the harm of wage arrears after the staff explained the law and reasoned in detail, actively cooperated with the court mediation, consulted with other partners to raise funds from multiple parties, promised to solve the problem of wage arrears as soon as possible, and assumed the legal and social responsibilities of the employers.
2. Priority in repayment of migrant workers' claims
As an important subject of social construction, migrant workers are related to social harmony and stability, and migrant workers' claims are more likely to cause mass disputes than ordinary claims, so it is necessary to establish priority for migrant workers' claims to be reimbursed. The current law clearly stipulates that its priority in being reimbursed is mainly in two major areas: First, the construction project price is preferentially reimbursed, and if the wages of the migrant workers are in arrears due to the construction unit's failure to allocate the project funds, the construction unit shall advance the arrears of the migrant workers' wages to the limit of the outstanding project funds; second, the bankruptcy liquidation property will be reimbursed in priority, and after the company goes bankrupt, after the bankruptcy expenses and common interest debts, the remaining part shall be paid to the wages of the employees on a priority basis. In this case, although it was a creditor's right of migrant workers, it was not a construction dispute or bankruptcy procedure, and there was no clear legal basis for its priority in repayment. However, according to the spirit of the Supreme People's Court's Notice on Further Strengthening the Trial and Enforcement of Cases of Arrears of Migrant Workers' Wages and related judicial practices, the wages of migrant workers should be guaranteed and supported on a priority basis, so the claims of migrant workers have priority and should be protected under consultation between multiple parties.
3. The legal status of the first creditor
In the enforcement procedure, the issue of whether the ordinary claims of the first creditor have the right of priority to be repaid compared with those of ordinary claims with monetary payment content determined by other effective legal documents has not been clear, and the adjudication views of the courts in various localities in practice have not been completely unified.
According to the first paragraph of article 55 of the Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Enforcement Work of the People's Courts (for Trial Implementation), "Multiple creditors whose monetary payment content is determined by multiple effective legal documents apply for enforcement against the same person subject to enforcement, and each creditor has no security interest in the subject matter of enforcement, it shall be reimbursed in accordance with the order in which the enforcement court took enforcement measures", specific to this case, the other creditors, as the first creditors, enjoy the right to be paid first. However, according to Article 510 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, "In principle, it shall be reimbursed in proportion to the proportion of all applications to participate in the distribution of creditors's rights", which pays attention to the principle of fairness and equally protects the rights and interests of all creditors. In order to balance the application of the two laws, some high courts have issued corresponding provisions to give a certain proportion of incentives to the first creditors in the enforcement process. In this case, the court of the first property letter claimed that the claims of migrant workers and other claims should be paid in proportion to each other, based on the principle of common interest, paying attention to social effects, and not breaking through the equality of creditor's rights, but after repeated communication, the court stood in the spirit of following the spirit of giving priority to protecting the payment of migrant workers' wages, and finally formed a better repayment plan and reached mediation.
At the end of the year, the number of cases of arrears of labor remuneration to migrant workers has gradually increased, and the number of migrant workers involved in this case is large, the social impact is widespread, and the safety hazards are large, so the responsibility for maintaining stability is heavy. In the process of handling, the legal aid center not only solved the problem of labor remuneration for migrant workers in a timely manner, but also paid attention to appeasing the emotions of the recipients and effectively preventing the occurrence of excessive behavior, which was recognized by the recipients and achieved good legal and social effects.
(Li Qingping)
Editor: Zhou Jianxin Editor:Yang Xuejiao
Source: Jingyan County Bureau of Justice, Sichuan Province, Sichuan Legal Network