(Beijing) – The government of the northwestern region of Ningxia has launched a campaign to ensure that companies pay their migrant workers on time, a move that comes days after a construction worker who said he didn't get paid for work done started a fire on a bus that killed 17 people.

Ningxia's government said in a statement on its website that it held a meeting on January 8 to discuss ways to make sure companies give migrant workers their salaries before Spring Festival, when many return home for family reunions. The holiday also known as Chinese New Year runs from Feb 7 to 13 this year.

Companies that fail to pay their employees will be subject to criminal punishment, the government of Ningxia said. The law allows for offenders to be punished with fines or jail terms of up to seven years.

On January 5, a construction worker named Ma Yongping complained on social media he had not been paid for work he did and that his complaints were ignored by local officials. Shortly after posting the complaint, Ma set a fire on a public bus in Yinchuan, Ningxia's capital, that killed 17 people and injured 33 others.

Ma, who had come from a neighboring city to find work, was later caught and admitted to the arson attack.

Officials in Yinchuan later said he had been paid and the government never got any complaints from him.

The government of Ningxia said it identified 27 construction companies that delayed salary payments to migrant workers in the first 10 months of last year. The firms cannot bid on government projects as punishment.

A slowing economy means some factory bosses are running out of money and building projects are sitting idle. Yinchuan's government said in a report on a meeting on December 15 that it dealt with more than 500 cases of unpaid wages in the first 11 months of last year, 22.3 percent more than in the same period of 2014. The cases involved 10,000 migrant workers who were owed 1.48 billion yuan.

The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is one of China's poorer provinces and regions. The government has said 1 million of the region's 6.6 million people live in poverty.

(Rewritten by Chen Na)