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From Political Affairs:

A post with photos of dozens of migrant workers kneeling down in front of the gate of the government compound in Zunhua City, Hebei Province, quickly became popular shortly after appearing on the Internet on January 6. According to the anonymous post, these workers, after toiling for a local construction project under a low-level subcontractor for almost a year starting in November 2009, weren’t paid 95 percent of their total wages. Their former boss, who paid just half of their salaries, said there was nothing he could do because the subcontractor above him paid only half of the overhead.

He Dongping, one migrant worker, later told Sichuan Daily, around 290 migrant workers working for the project were owed wages totaling around 3 million yuan ($455,000) and more than 200 workers were, like himself, from Sichuan Province. According to the report, the workers regarded petitioning the local government as a last resort to quickly retrieve their unpaid wages in time for their Spring Festival (February 3 this year) family reunion, which was one month away.

The workers’ three-month odyssey to get their money back ended after the local government ordered the developer pay all of their wages on January 14.