Unpaid construction workers take it out on pupils  

郑州施工单位将700余学生赶出教室

Pupils stay at the school basketball court after they are forced out of classrooms. (Photo source: CFP)

(ECNS) -- Sixteen workers from a construction company in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan province, burst into a primary school and forced more than 700 students out of classrooms on Sunday, and 11 of them were arrested by police, according to Zhengzhou Evening News.

The workers had been working on a site at the school, and they didn't receive their pay, one of them said.

"A leader at the construction firm told us that without project payment, we couldn't get paid. So we burst into the teaching building," said a worker surnamed Wang.

Wang wasn't among those arrested, because he didn't go into the classroom or force students out.

"I couldn't bear to force these kids out," Wang said. "The reason I claimed salary was to pay my kids' tuition fees so they can stay in school."

"The arrest was proper," said Li Fenghua, a lawyer at a local law firm. "The workers' actions violated the law."

The construction firm had a contractual relationship with the developer, not the school, and the school had nothing to do with their debt dispute, Li added.

Zhengzhou police arrested 11 of the workers on suspicion of disturbing social order on Tuesday.