Society

Bosses make good on wages

By Guo Rui in Wuhan and Jiao Hongchang in Kaifeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-25 07:49

Family of dead construction boss ensure workers get paid

When Sun Donglin found out his brother Sun Shuilin died in an accident on Feb 9, he decided to finish an unfulfilled task of his sibling - making sure that his construction workers got paid.

Family members of Sun Shuilin, who died along with four other relatives in a car accident, arrange photographs of the deceased at their home in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Tuesday. [Chen Zhuo]

"I just did what my brother hoped to do and now I only wish that he rests in peace," said Sun Donglin after he distributed wages to more than 60 workers for his elder brother.

Before he died, Sun Shuilin, 50, was delivering wages to his workers in line with a traditional practice near Spring Festival.

"When I found 260,000 yuan in my brother's car, I was determined to make sure the money got to the workers," Sun Donglin said.

He said it was his brother's wish for all the workers to enjoy a happy new year with their wages.

"Though we were grieving from his death, we should not make others unhappy," Sun Donglin said.

He knew well that the workers were waiting for the money for Spring Festival.

He returned home with the money, instead of staying in Lankao county, Henan province, to deal with his brother's funeral arrangements.

Sun Donglin even took money from his own account to make up for the shortfall in the wages, and his mother Song Lamei, similarly took out 10,000 yuan of her savings.

In the past years, the family was known for not owing workers any back pay, even if they were in financial difficulty.

"My brother always told me to pay the workers on time," Sun Donglin said.

"He said, 'if they work hard the whole year but still have their wages in arrears, who will follow you next year?'"

The actions of the Sun family have continued to move a large number of people, especially those who are used to hearing of labor disputes involving back pay and employers who renege on wages for their migrant workers. China had more than 225 million migrant workers by the end of 2008, statistics from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security showed.

The Sun brothers themselves were born into a poor rural family of Huangpi district in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province. They started working as carpenters at construction sites in their early years and set up their own construction group to work on projects in 1989.

Their team had dozens of workers from their hometown and the number of workers working for them peaked at 200.

Local authorities recently awarded the Sun family with a "Brothers of Honor" accolade and a "Model Family" award to the brothers, calling on local residents to learn from their honesty.

"They have made the city proud," Wuhan mayor Ruan Chengfa told local media.

Xinwenlianbo, or Network News Broadcast, the country's flagship news program under State broadcaster CCTV, also reported the brothers' deeds on Monday.

"What the brothers brought is not only the salaries of migrant workers, but the integrity which should be treasured by the society," the program reported.

Traffic police in Kaifeng, Henan province, where Sun Shuilin died, were so touched by the brothers' actions that they pledged to donate money to help the family.

Similarly, the story of the Sun brothers moved countless netizens. In less than two days after reports of them were posted on information portal hb.QQ.com, more than 8,000 neitizens viewed the story and left 2,317 comments.

"I cannot help crying," a netizen who went by the name Ruibaobao posted online.

"They remained kind even when they became rich, something that is rarely seen these days."

Wang Qian contributed to the story