BEIJING: A Chinese company has been placed under official investigation after it gave consumer vouchers instead of money as salary to its employees, triggering online backlash.
A person from northeastern China’s Jilin province posted that the shopping centre he worked for, Motian Vitality City, gave its staff consumer vouchers as their salary.
Photos posted by the man on a social media platform showed the vouchers with values ranging from 10 to 500 yuan (US$1.4 to US$70).
Each voucher also has a unique number, just like banknotes.
“These are the salary amounts for my three months’ hard work,” he said.
The man said that other entities owned by the same parent company Dazhong Zhuoyue Holding Group, including real estate, property management and taxi companies, also gave the same vouchers to their employees.
The vouchers can only be used to pay for certain things and do not offer change. — Photo: Weixin
An instruction from the company indicated that the vouchers can be used to pay property management fees, buy certain properties and parking space owned by the group at a discount price, and goods at another Motian Vitality City mall in their city until the end of this year.
A member of staff with the mall told media outlet Chinese Business View that the vouchers could only be used with some shops, mostly restaurants and clothing stores, and they do not give change if the bought item is less than the value of the voucher.
“Many colleagues have mortgages and car loans, and young kids and old parents to support. We are helpless with these vouchers,” the poster said.
The company’s behaviour sparked outrage on social media.
The company which owns Motian Vitality City mall is under investigation. — Photo: Weixin
“Since when can a company issue their own currency? They should be severely punished,” one person said.
“We must have you pay back whatever you have earned from me. It does not seem like a modern company but a slave owner,” another person said.
A third said that some companies in Jilin province used to give packs of cigarettes as salary decades ago.
“So many years have passed and they are still doing that,” another person said.
The local human resources and social security bureau said they were investigating the case.
Lawyer Zhao Liangshan from Shaanxi Hengda Law Firm told Chinese Business View that the company had broken the law, as the Labour Law states that salaries should be paid monthly to labourers themselves in the form of cash.
China’s Contract Law also dictates that any changes regarding salaries, working hours and other issues related with workers’ interests should be thoroughly discussed with and confirmed by the employees themselves. – SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
