On 29 June 2018, Haikou Maritime Court tried a series of cases concerning unpaid wages to workers in a land reclamation project. With the persistent efforts made by the handling judge, the cases were successfully settled and 17 plaintiffs received their long-awaited arrears of wages on the spot.

Yangpu Division of Haikou Maritime Court was visiting sites of key land reclamation projects in the jurisdiction when consulted by a group of workers. They claimed that in a land reclamation project in Haihua Island, the contractor had been managing poorly and was in arrears of wages to the workers. To make things worse, the contractor had already “disappeared”. The offices from the division learned about the details and offered them guidance on litigation.

On 5 June, the 17 plaintiffs officially brought an action before Haikou Maritime Court. Yangpu Division entertained the series of cases. The leadership of the division attached great importance to the cases and decided to open a green channel for them. The division was urged to care for the socially vulnerable groups and to entertain, try and conclude the cases with upmost efficiency. The division also took the initiative to contact local legal aid agencies to solicit legal aid for the 17 plaintiffs.

As all the plaintiffs were workers with limited ability to produce evidence and the defendant, Pang, was nowhere to be found, the handling judge visited Danzhou Labour Supervision Group and the general contractor of the project, China Construction Fourth Engineering Division Corp. Ltd., and other organizations for investigation. Evidence was collected and it was found that the defendant, Pang, had withdrawn from the project since last July and his superior sub-contractor was a third person, Wei. The handling judge then quickly got into contact with Wei by trying various means, hoping to recover the workers’ wages through reconciliation.

On 29 June, through the repeated efforts of the handling judge, the third person, Wei, eventually rushed to Yangpu Division from Sichuan for a reconciliation. Resorting to law, sympathy and reasons, the handling judge patiently explained and analysed for both parties. Eventually the parties reached consensus based on mutual understanding and compromise. Wei paid the settlement amount in full on the spot, and the 17 plaintiffs finally received their long-awaited wages.