Comparative study of crimes of deliberate non-payment of wages in the Criminal Codes of China and Russia
Authors: Xu Kai 
Published: September 2021

The phenomenon of malicious non-payment of wages is widespread in all countries of the world, maybe it is especially serious in China, it has attracted a lot of attention from the Party (CPC) and the Chinese government. Under conditions when the solution of this issue through civil and administrative methods is not very effective, the Chinese legislative bodies, under the leadership of offi cials, fi nally decided to use the intimidating power of criminal punishment to solve this problem, which has tormented the government for many years.Article 41 “Amendments to the Criminal Code (8) of the People’s Republic of China” states: After article 276 of the Criminal Law, an article is added as one of the articles 276: Evasion of payment of wages to workers by transferring property, escape, etc. Or those who are able to pay, but do not pay wages to employees in the case when the amount is relatively large, and the relevant government departments order the payment of wages, but still cannot pay, are punished with imprisonment for up to 3 years or arrest, and additionally or as an independent punishment — a fi ne; Persons who have committed the same violations that have entailed serious consequences are punished with imprisonment for a term of 3 to 7 years and additionally with a fi ne. If the crime mentioned in the fi rst part of this article was committed by an organization, a fi ne is applied to the organization, and the directly responsible heads of the organization and other directly responsible persons are punished in accordance with the fi rst part of this article. The acts provided for in the fi rst and second parts of this article, which did not entail serious consequences, in which the employee’s salary for work is paid before the charge is brought and appropriate compensation is accepted in accordance with the law, then the punishment may be commuted or released. Article 276 of the Criminal Code provides for the crime of causing harm to production and economy, which belongs to this chapter crime against property (Chapter 5 of the special part of the Criminal Code). Therefore, the crime of malicious non-payment of wages is a crime against the property of citizens (employees).Due to the fact that the Chinese Constitution does not provide that citizens have the right to receive remuneration, only the Labor Legislation states: that Workers have the right to equal employment and choice of profession, the right to receive wages for work ... In view of this, that from the point of view of legal relations, based on both the Labor Law and the Law on the Employment Contract, the effect of non-payment of wages only occurred between the employee and the employer. According to the employment contract, disputes arising when, after the employee has fulfi lled the contract, but the employer does not pay him wages in accordance with the contract.The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for crimes of non-payment of wages, pensions, scholarships, allowances and other necessary payments in chapter 19 “crimes against the constitutional rights and freedoms of man and citizen” of section VII “Crimes against the person”. Bringing together the above, the rights to pay for work, receive state pensions and social benefi ts, etc., protected by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, are constitutional rights. And also, they are specifi ed in Article 2 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation a person, his rights and freedoms are the highest value. Recognition, observance and protection of human and civil rights and freedoms is the duty of the state, specifi ed in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.In China, when criminalizing the action of non-payment of wages, the most fundamental issue that needs to be resolved is to have a basis of justice, that is, to introduce "income from labor" into the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, which provides for the basic rights of a citizen. At the same time, it is necessary to amend the chapter related to “crimes against the rights of the individual and the democratic rights of citizens in the Criminal Code,” and to amend the “crime against constitutional rights,” as well as the chapter includes “crimes of non-payment of wages, scholarships, pensions and benefi ts”, but should not be included in chapter 5 “crime against property”.As a result, a comparison of the criminal code between the two countries China and Russia on the crime of malicious non-payment of wages shows that there are contradictions and problems in Chinese legislation, and the political signifi cance of the legislation far exceeds the legal signifi cance, which will directly affect its application in judicial practice.