Fire fighters carry a victim of the Shantou city blaze
Most of those you died in the underwear factory fire were women
A court in China has sentenced a man to death for setting fire to his former workplace, a garment factory, in a row over unpaid wages, state media says.
About 30 workers were in the factory in Shantou, a city in southern Guangdong province, at the time of the blaze last December and 14 of them died.
Liu Shuangyun said he started the fire because the boss of the underwear firm refused to pay him about $500 (£320).
Unpaid wages are a big source of worker discontent, rights campaigners say.
There are no independent trade unions in China.
‘Revenge’
The state-run Xinhua news agency said that Liu, a migrant worker from central Hunan province, spent $6.50 on petrol used to start the fire and then fled the scene.
He was captured several hours later and in an interview broadcast on state media the next day said his former boss kept docking his wages.
The damaged textile factory building following a fire in Shantou, south China’s Guangdong province – 5 December 2012
Survivors said they had difficulty escaping from the factory
“I decided firmly to take revenge on him,” he said.
Most of those who died in the fire were young women, officials said.
A survivor told Xinhua that the fire started on the ground floor and people had difficulty escaping.
“I was working near a window and survived by jumping out of it,” 21-year-old Chen Xiaoshan said.
Rights campaigners say many such factories in China do not have adequate health and safety procedures.
