Working and getting paid is the rule in a properly functioning society, but cheating workers of their wages has grown into a recurring illness in China.

Cases like this that involving deliberate delaying payment or totally denying the responsibility are no longer something that could make a headline in today's news.

In this particular case, the biggest irony is that not only did the migrant workers receive no support or legal assistance from the local government, but the company that they worked for is a subsidiary branch of that same government.

In theory, there are several feasible ways for the migrant workers to get their delayed payment back.

With the intervention of the judicial department, and the workers' union's assistance, a company that owes wages to the migrant workers should not have a leg to stand on.

Although the central government is issuing polices trying to better protect migrant workers, they remain a socially vulnerable group.

With no certification, they are left out of the welfare and legal system.

Even if they had the knowledge and means to file a legal case against the company, the long-lasting procedures and migrant workers' lack of legal knowledge will all end up hurting their interests.

The reality is, the process of better protecting migrant workers' interest lags a long way behind urbanization and massive national construction.

Migrant workers, on the other hand, take the most difficult and dirtiest jobs in the city, but are usually treated with no respect for their work.

Getting paid for their work is the most basic and fundamental issue concerning migrant workers.

Before this matter is clearly resolved, discussions and promises on other welfare systems are just empty talk.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. wumeng@viewpoint@globaltimes.com.cn