Many migrant workers' biggest concern at the end of every year is difficulty in getting paid due to the questionable operation of the companies they work for. But this year Urumqi has solved their problem.

The Urumqi high-tech Industrial Zone is now working on a "company credit records" system to ensure migrant workers' legal rights by giving them information on their employers' operations.

On Nov 11 Yu Lianjiang, a peasant worker in the high-tech zone, made a special trip to thank the local labor security supervision department.

He said that were it not for the help of the department, he and his coworkers would not have received their wages of over 200,000 yuan ($29,000) that were two years overdue.

On hearing that the zone is now tracking the credit of local companies, Yu was even more thrilled.

"Asking for payments is a hard journey. Having the company credit records, we'll be able to monitor the operating conditions of our employers. Once we find any misbehavior, we leave," he said.

"Most complaints we receive, up to 90 percent, pertain to unpaid wages," said An Shijia, a supervisor at the labor security inspection department.

He added that a black list for misbehaving construction companies has been founded. Complaints this year have fallen by one third compared to last year.

"Now 4,096 companies have been recorded on line. A list of dishonest and illegal companies will be announced every season. We will restrict them in their applications for contracting projects," he said.

By Qiu Guizhen and edited by Peter Nordlinger