SHENZHEN - A man was sentenced to serve one and half years in prison for not paying his workers in this city earlier this month.

That marked the first time a jail term has been handed down in Shenzhen since nonpayment of wages was listed as a crime in May.

Xu Shijun, a construction contractor, was found guilty of not using money he had received from a client to pay the 208,596 yuan ($33,000) in wages he owed to 47 people who had worked under him. The police caught up with him in August but could not get the 23-year-old to part with the money.