Recently, the General Office of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress held a press conference, at which the newly revised "Shanxi Province Construction Market Management Regulations" were released.
Ensuring the payment of migrant workers' wages concerns the vital interests and well-being of the vast number of migrant workers, the high-quality development of the construction industry, and social fairness, justice, harmony and stability. Over the past 30 years, the "Shanxi Province Construction Market Management Regulations" have played an important role in standardizing the order of the construction market in Shanxi Province and promoting the healthy development of the construction industry. In recent years, laws such as the "Construction Law" and the "Bidding Law" have been amended successively, national construction market policies have been intensively adjusted, and the construction market environment has also undergone many changes. In order to promote the high-quality development of Shanxi Province's construction market in accordance with the law, it is very necessary to revise the regulations.
The original regulations consisted of 8 chapters and 45 articles; after revision they consist of 8 chapters and 49 articles, and take effect on October 1, 2024. The newly revised "Shanxi Province Construction Market Management Regulations" focus on strengthening construction market management, standardizing construction market order, and safeguarding the lawful rights and interests of construction market entities. They set out the responsibilities of people's governments at all levels across the province, urban and rural construction departments and other departments, regulate activities in construction market activities such as contracting out, contracting, engineering services, and the conclusion and performance of contracts, and make modifications in two aspects: information-based regulatory services and credit repair, and project construction fund management and the safeguarding of migrant workers' wages, so as to create a fair and just construction market environment and promote the high-quality development of the construction industry.
In response to problems in the construction market such as construction units forcing construction contractors to advance funds for construction, disputes during the settlement process, and delays in paying project funds, the regulations provide that before a construction project starts, there shall be funding arrangements sufficient to meet construction needs. Where there are no funding arrangements sufficient to meet construction needs, the construction project may not commence construction. Government-invested construction projects may not be constructed with funds advanced by construction contractors; construction units may not delay project settlement or default on project payments on the grounds that the construction project has not completed auditing.
At the same time, in order to effectively reduce the burden on construction enterprises and safeguard the rights and interests of migrant workers, the regulations also provide that construction units shall provide project payment guarantees in accordance with the law, and general construction contractors shall deposit migrant worker wage security deposits in accordance with the law. When a construction unit and a contractor conclude a written construction project contract, they shall agree on matters such as the amount of labor costs or their proportion of the project payment, and the cycle and dates for allocating labor costs, and shall promptly and fully allocate labor costs to the contractor's dedicated migrant worker wage account.