The State Council has approved the evaluation methods regarding the annual performance evaluation of provincial governments over timely payments of wages to rural migrant workers, according to a circular released on Sept 27.

Under the leadership of the State Council, the performance appraisal will be carried out by a State Council working group once a year from 2023 to 2027, according to the circular.

The State Council will assess provincial governments’ performance in strengthening organization and playing the leadership role on ensuring the timely wage payments to rural migrant workers; improving and implementing the wage payment guarantee system; addressing pay off arrears, particularly in the engineering construction sector; and people’s satisfaction on this issue.

The circular clarified that the evaluation work will adhere to the following procedures: self-assessment by the provincial government, on-site investigation by the working group, third-party appraisal by trusted institutions, secret investigation and random checks, and comprehensive assessments.

The circular also noted that the assessment result will be based on grading-score by three rating categories, A, B or C. For governments rated C - representing the worst performance - the working group will conduct regulatory talks with related officials of the governments.