As the Spring Festival approached, the Shandong Provincial Labor and Personnel Dispute Arbitration Commission sent a commendation letter to China Life Property & Casualty Insurance Co., Ltd. Shandong Branch. The letter congratulated the branch for being the first to achieve interconnection with the provincial migrant worker wage payment supervision platform and for offering online insurance services for wage guarantee policies. It also noted that the branch ranked first in the province for wage guarantee insurance business among construction projects managed by the platform. The commission fully affirmed the branch's efforts in effectively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of migrant workers, substantially reducing corporate burdens, continuously optimizing the business environment, and fostering harmonious labor relations.
In recent years, due to various uncertain factors, the risk of wage arrears in the engineering and construction sector has gradually increased. Some construction enterprises have frequently failed to pay migrant workers on time because of delayed project payments from developers, bankruptcy liquidation, or insufficient working capital, infringing upon the vital interests of migrant workers. To fully leverage insurance's role as an economic "booster" and social "stabilizer," and to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of migrant workers, China Life P&C Shandong Branch proactively engaged with local human resources, social security, and housing and construction departments at all levels to actively launch the "Migrant Worker Wage Payment Performance Guarantee Insurance."
The "Migrant Worker Wage Performance Guarantee Insurance" is purchased by construction units and developers legally engaged in various new, expanded, or renovated projects to insure the migrant workers they legally employ. If the competent construction authorities and human resources and social security departments determine that the insured enterprise is unable to fulfill all or part of its wage payment obligations to migrant workers, China Life P&C Shandong Branch will assume the compensatory responsibility as stipulated in the insurance contract, directly ensuring that migrant workers receive their wages smoothly.
A relevant responsible person from China Life P&C Shandong Branch stated that the branch has now launched this business in all prefecture-level cities across the province, achieving full regional coverage and offering both offline and online application services. It has provided coverage for 4,480 various enterprises, offering risk protection for the wages of 92,000 migrant worker person-times, with cumulative coverage for payment risks amounting to 4.6 billion yuan.
"Introducing a commercial insurance mechanism to resolve migrant worker wage arrears not only ensures the security of wage payments for migrant workers and effectively alleviates the government's challenge of recovering back wages but also allows enterprises, after paying a wage performance guarantee insurance premium equivalent to 0.03% of the project cost, to use the insurance policy for filing instead of depositing a wage bond equivalent to 1% of the project cost with the competent housing and construction authorities. This optimizes the business environment, achieving multiple benefits with one action," further explained a department head from China Life P&C Shandong Branch. Currently, these two insurance products have cumulatively freed up 4.6 billion yuan in cash flow for enterprises' bond requirements, effectively easing the pressure from insufficient working capital.
In the claims settlement process for the "Migrant Worker Wage Performance Guarantee Insurance," China Life P&C Shandong Branch handles cases specially, continuously simplifying and expediting the claims process through technological innovation. It has established a dedicated green channel and made a "two guarantees" service commitment: "guaranteed payment upon competent authority certification" and "guaranteed payment if it falls within insurance liability," ensuring claims are paid into accounts within the stipulated timeframe. Simultaneously, the branch utilizes digital intelligence to enable its claims service system to take the lead in achieving interconnection with the provincial migrant worker wage payment supervision platform.
It is understood that last year, an enterprise in Binzhou City, Shandong Province, experienced a broken capital chain, leading to 4.06 million yuan in wage arrears for migrant workers. As this enterprise had purchased the "Migrant Worker Wage Performance Guarantee Insurance" from China Life P&C Shandong Branch, upon receiving the notice from the local human resources, social security, and housing and construction departments, the branch immediately formed a dedicated claims task force. The team promptly visited the construction unit to understand its operational status and the wage arrears situation, collaborating with local authorities to confirm insurance liability and collect claim documentation. This facilitated the timely payment of the arrears into the special migrant worker wage account under the three-party supervision project of the housing and construction system, which was then immediately transferred to the bank cards of 81 affected migrant workers, alleviating their wage anxieties.
Since launching the "Migrant Worker Wage Performance Guarantee Insurance," China Life P&C Shandong Branch has paid out compensation totaling 17.88 million yuan for wage arrears on behalf of 9 enterprises, ensuring that insured migrant workers received their due wages fully and promptly. The branch's innovative measures to share the government's concerns, help enterprises overcome difficulties, and resolve the worries of migrant workers—tackling wage arrears at their root and helping companies manage liquidity with dedication and effort—fully demonstrate the contemporary responsibility of a central state-owned financial enterprise in focusing on and fulfilling its primary duties. This innovative approach has been promoted nationwide by the State Council's Leading Group for Eradicating Migrant Worker Wage Arrears.