On March 25, Huai'an Municipal People's Government held a special press conference to interpret and release the main content, implementation results, and next arrangements of the Seven Measures of Huai'an City to Ensure the Payment of Wages for Migrant Workers in Engineering Construction (Trial) (hereinafter referred to as "Seven Measures") officially issued in January this year. The main drafting departments of the policy answered reporters' questions on relevant issues, effectively addressing the concerns of migrant workers and all sectors of society.

The Seven Measures target the pain points in the whole chain of wage arrears governance in engineering construction, covering the whole process of prevention beforehand, supervision during the event, and punishment afterwards. The main content includes: First, a full wage deposit mechanism should be established. Huai'an requires all projects deposit not less than 2 months of wage funds in special wage accounts before commencement. Wages for projects with a construction period of less than 2 months shall be deposited in full amount, and projects failing to meet the standards shall not be started. Second, Huai'an has clarified the main responsibilities of all parties for payment and made it clear that the general construction contractor bears overall responsibility for the authenticity of wage accounting and distribution. Any project that fails to appropriate or distribute wages on time shall be ordered to stop engineering operations. Third, Huai'an has strengthened the dynamic supervision of special wage accounts. The deposit bank should notify the competent department as soon as it finds abnormal funds. Fourth, the linkage between wage payment and project acceptance will be implemented. If wage arrears are identified in any project, it will not proceed to approval. Fifth, Huai'an has promoted migrant workers' rights and interests protection cards to enable real-time checks of attendance and salary details and to mark rights protection paths clearly. Sixth, Huai'an has strengthened the linkage of credit disciplinary measures and collected all information about arrears subjects to public credit platforms for joint punishment. Seventh, Huai'an has seriously investigated violations of laws and regulations and punished units responsible for arrears of wages and staff who fail to perform their duties in accordance with laws, regulations, and disciplines.

As of mid-March, the Seven Measures have been implemented steadily for 2 months, and various measures have taken effect: 205 of the city's 332 projects under construction have completed wage deposits, totaling RMB 413 million. In 2026, the deposit rate for newly commenced projects exceeded 70%, eliminating the risk of "no money to pay wages" at the source. Compared with the same period last year, the number of arrears clues received decreased by more than 12% in Qingjiangpu, Huaiyin, Xuyi, and other counties. At present, 11 enterprises with serious wage arrears have been subject to credit punishment, and 6 criminal cases have been transferred. The governance atmosphere of "no default or dare not default" in the city's engineering construction field has basically formed.

Looking forward, Huai'an will continue to deepen source governance and strive to achieve full coverage of wage deposits for newly commenced projects in the first half of the year. At the same time, it will improve the multi-departmental joint law enforcement mechanism, severely crack down on malicious arrears of wages, and effectively ensure that every migrant worker working in Huai'an is paid in time and at right amount.