More than 2,000 migrant employees from a local semiconductor company were treated by their employer to dinner at a five-star hotel Saturday night.

The workers, all in blue uniform, included the company's assembly-line workers, technicians, cleaners and security staff.

It is reportedly the first time a local company has invited its low-paid workers to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year at a five-star hotel.

The workers even had the chance to dine with and be entertained alongside 13 members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, who had come to Shenzhen to inspect migrant workers' living standards.

"You are the most cherished part of the company," Lin Yilong, chairman of Grand Tech Group, told his employees at the banquet.

Lin said most of the migrant workers, with a monthly salary of some 1,000 yuan (US$130), had never been to a five-star hotel before. "That's why we wanted to treat them to dinner here, as a reward for their efforts over the past year."

The 200-table banquet at Kempinski Hotel, part of the city's Project Care, cost the company some 1 million yuan.

The city's annual Project Care was launched across the city in January in a bid to help impoverished families and disadvantaged groups, including millions of migrant workers.

Zhu Ruihua, 39, a warehouse worker, said she had worked for the manufacturer for more than five years. Her husband, Hu Heting, a buyer, had worked for the company for a decade. The couple received an award as exemplar workers at the banquet.

"Many migrant workers in our company are long-term employees," she said, saying that they enjoyed Shenzhen as their second hometown.

Lin said the company was preparing to set up its own labor union after the lunar New Year, for the migrant workers' welfare.

There are more than 4 million migrant workers living in Shenzhen, and their living standards and welfare are of great concern to the municipal government and public.

Editor: Yan