Migrant workers fighting for unpaid wages filed more than half of all labor disputes in the capital last year, it was revealed on Wednesday.

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A total of 14,361 cases were reported to authorities in 2010, with the vast majority of victims being "laborers in the construction industry", said Wu Antai, director of labor inspection at Beijing's human resource and social security bureau.

In releasing the latest statistics, Wu named and shamed six major Beijing firms recently taken to court for failing to pay salaries on time. Among them was Huapu Property Group, a real estate firm in Chaoyang district, which was found to have withheld payments to 24 employees for 14 months.

Huapu and two other companies were fined between 2,000 and 20,000 yuan, as well as ordered to clear the arrears with affected staff and pay compensation.

"We want to make them pay the salary rather than a penalty," said Wu, who added that two other firms received fines of 14,000 yuan and 19,000 yuan respectively for illegally prolonging employees' working period.

Beijing's labor inspection team helped 48,300 workers get unpaid salaries totaling almost 176 million yuan in 2010. Roughly 39,200 of claimants were migrant workers. Officials also dealt with 269 mass incidents caused by disputes.

"Labor wrangles in the (construction) industry will continue to be serious as the city develops at high speed," said Wu.

The building industry is the worst for disputes, according to Wang Fang, director of Zhicheng Legal Aid and Research Center for Migrant Workers, although official statistics show small and medium-sized enterprises have been involved in more than 90 percent of all conflicts over the past four years.

"Although the city is still seeing a peak in labor violations, the number of disputes fell by 23 percent last year compared to 2009," added Wu.

He predicted that social security will likely be the next big conflict, as from July 1 firms are required to cover migrant workers' social security contributions.