The State Council of China Friday issued an urgent notice urging relevant departments and local authorities to settle pay disputes involving migrant workers as millions of them are heading home for lunar new year reunion.

The notice asked local governments and relevant departments to prioritize in their work the settlement of migrant workers' back pay dispute with their employers.

It underlined the construction industry where back pay disputes often happen.

It also ordered local governments to improve the emergency management system to respond to possible mass incidents caused by pay disputes.

Two migrant workers were stabbed to death by their employer over a pay dispute Wednesday in central China's Henan Province.

The two men asked for wages on behalf of 17 fellow workers and got into a fight with their labor contractor after being told that their monthly payment had been docked by over 100 yuan (about US$14.6), and then were stabbed in the neck with a fruit knife by the contractor.

In China, millions of migrant workers from the countryside make their living in booming cities. Back pay to migrant workers has affected the income of the rural population for a long time and is considered a "chronic illness" undermining social stability.

(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2010)