More than 10 local companies are under court order to pay social insurance funds they failed to remit to their migrant employees this year, the Shanghai Labor Inspection Team announced on Tuesday.

The amounts payable range from 2,370 yuan (US$293) to 41,538 yuan (US$5,138).

Most of the violators are manufacturing companies in the suburban Jinshan and Minhang districts and Pudong New Area.

"Some of the payments weren't made because of financial difficulties, while the majority were a result of the employers' lack of awareness of migrant employees' rights," said Lu Tingfei, a spokesman for the labor inspection team.

Shanghai Bailian Garment Co Ltd, a renowned women's clothing manufacturer in Jinshan, hadn't made insurance payments for 60 migrant workers for more than a year. The total amount owed was 41,538 yuan.

Inspection officials ordered the firm to remit the back payments within 15 days after the matter was uncovered, but the company refused to do so.

Inspectors applied for an enforcement order from the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court, which ordered payment.

The guilty companies were also ordered to pay a penalty for late payment.

In the first 10 months of the year, inspectors handled over 5,700 cases of payment defaults and recovered 68 million yuan (US$8.4 million).

As at the end of last month, about 135,000 companies have social insurance payments for more than 2.1 million migrant workers.

(Shanghai Daily November 2, 2005)