Chinese labor officials are investigating an incident in which a migrant worker in Shenzhen set himself on fire to protest against his boss refusing to pay him what he said he was owed.

Yang Zengchao, 23, who worked in a handbag factory in Longgang district of Shenzhen, poured white gas, an inflammable liquid similar to gasoline, onto his body and set himself alight in his manager's office last Sunday morning, said Liu Laiguang, director of the district's Pinghu labor station.

Both Yang and his wife Liu Xiaoli, 21, started working in the factory on Nov. 8, but the couple decided to return home to Yunnan after being told their one-year-old child had fallen ill, Liu said.

He said the couple last Saturday demanded the manager pay them 1,000 yuan, but the boss insisted they would only be paid after working one whole month. No contract was signed between the boss and the couple, he added.

"Yang might have committed the act to push and intimidate the boss, not really to kill himself, but the lighter accidentally set him on fire," he said.

The Shenzhen labor and social security bureau has launched an investigation into whether the factory is delaying or withholding the couple's pay.

The Yunnan provincial labor department established a special investigation team, and sent staff to Shenzhen and to Yang's hometown in Xuanwei of Yunnan to console his relatives.

The injured man is being treated in Shansha hospital in Shenzhen. Doctors said he had suffered burns on 90 percent of his skin, 86 percent seriously.

The hospital performed surgery on Yang on Tuesday. Doctors expect the initial treatment to last three months and cost over one million yuan. "The doctors said if there is any infection, his life will be in danger," Yang's wife Liu sobbed and said, when contacted by Xinhua by phone.

She recalled that, on the day of the incident, she left the work building to answer a phone call and by the time she returned, Yang's whole body was covered in flames and his skin was peeling off.

She said the boss repeatedly refused to pay them enough money to cover the cost of their trips home.

"The hospital is paying for the treatment costs now, but one day we have to pay it all back, and there is no way my family will be able to afford it. What can I do?" she said.

She said in four days since the incident, the manager has not turned up at the hospital to visit. "I am so disappointed and we hope the government can give us justice," she said.

An official with the Yunnan provincial labor department said he urged local labor officials to prevent such incidents from happening again, especially toward the end of the year when migrant workers need to be paid in order to return to their hometowns.

(Xinhua News Agency November 30, 2007)