Chinese workers keeping an American executive confined to his Beijing medical supply factory said Tuesday that they had not been paid in two months in a compensation dispute that highlights tensions in China\u2019s labour market.<\/p>\n
The executive, Chip Starnes of Specialty Medical Supplies, denied the workers\u2019 allegations of two months of unpaid wages, as he endured a fifth day of captivity at the plant in the capital\u2019s northeastern suburbs, peering out from behind the bars of his office window.<\/p>\n
About 100 workers are demanding back pay and severance packages identical to those offered 30 workers being laid off from the Coral Springs, Fla.-based company\u2019s plastics division. The demands followed rumours that the entire plant was being closed, despite Starnes\u2019 assertion that the company doesn\u2019t plan to fire the others.<\/p>\n
The dispute highlights general tensions in China\u2019s labour market as bosses worry about rising wages and workers are on edge about the impact of slowing growth on the future of their jobs.<\/p>\n
Inside one of the plant\u2019s buildings, about 30 mostly women hung around, their arms crossed. One worker, Gao Ping, told reporters inside an administrative office in the plant that she wanted to quit because she hadn\u2019t been paid for two months.<\/p>\n
Dressed in blue overalls and sitting down at a desk, Gao said her division \u2013 which makes alcohol prep pads, used for cleaning skin before injections \u2013 had not been doing well and that she wanted her salary and compensation.<\/p>\n
Workers in other divisions who saw how badly her division was doing thought the whole company was faring poorly and also wanted to quit and get compensation, said Gao, who had been working for the company for six years.<\/p>\n
Starnes, 42, denied that they were owed unpaid salary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are demanding full severance pay, but they still have a job. That\u2019s the problem,\u201d he said, still in the clothes he wore when he went to work Friday morning.<\/p>\n
Chu Lixiang, a local union official representing the workers in talks with Starnes, said the workers were demanding the portion of their salaries yet to be paid and a \u201creasonable\u201d level of compensation before leaving their jobs. Neither gave details on the amounts demanded.<\/p>\n
Chu said workers believed the plant was closing and that Starnes would run away without paying severance. Starnes\u2019 attorney arrived Tuesday afternoon. Chu later told reporters that there would be no negotiations for the rest of the day.<\/p>\n
Starnes said that since Saturday morning, about 80 workers had been blocking every exit around the clock and depriving him of sleep by shining bright lights and banging on windows of his office.<\/p>\n
The standoff points to long-ingrained habits among Chinese workers who are sometimes left unprotected when factories close without severance or wages owed. Such incidents have been rarer as labour protections improve, although disputes still occur and local governments have at times barred foreign executives from leaving until they are resolved.<\/p>\n
Starnes said the company had gradually been winding down its plastics division, planning to move it to Mumbai, India. He arrived in Beijing a week ago to lay off the last 30 people. Some had been working there for up to nine years, so their compensation packages were \u201cpretty nice,\u201d he said. Then workers in other divisions started demanding similar severance packages on Friday, he said.<\/p>\n
Kevin Jones, who advises U.S. companies on Chinese labour and employment law, said it is better if American executives stay at home and let their local managers lay off workers.<\/p>\n
In a case last week, Jones said the chief financial officer of a U.S. telecommunications equipment maker wanted to come to Beijing to explain the situation and give 41 white-collar workers their termination notices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe told him to stay in America,\u201d said Jones, who chairs the Shanghai-based Faegre Baker Daniels labour and employment practice. The company\u2019s lawyers met with six employee representatives in a hotel. \u201cWe had two bodyguards but that was just in case things got out of control,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
Christian Murck, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said Chinese labour law specified a minimum severance pay in the event of a layoff due to economic necessity or if someone is dismissed due to cause, but not a maximum one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a kind of structural weakness in the way the labour law is set up that leads to negotiations and disputes when departures occur,\u201d Murck said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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