It is not atypical for some poor workers in China, especially construction workers, to have their salary delayed, for months. But now, some new faces are showing up in the army of the people whose salary got delayed. These new faces are some workers from other countries, and most of them are middle/high level managers, or engineers. The money owed to them include salary, compensation for business travel, or some fringe benefit payment. Some of them already have their pay delayed for more than 6 months, a couple even as long as a year.
The main reason for this is that these Chinese companies are losing money or closing down. Although in some cases, it is because no enough details in their contract. In some contract, there was only the description of the position, but no mention about salary. Some companies, in order to lower their tax obligation, deliberately lower the amount of the pay in the contract (My comment, some of these foreigners must really need the job, otherwise why don't they read the contract carefully before they signed them?).
As China opens up further, more and more foreigners are employed there. In 2004, there were 65,459 foreign citizens applied for working in Shanghai, an increase of 52% from 2003. Most of them are from Japan, the US and S. Korea.
So the Chinese gov. advise those who are going to work in China should fully understand their contract before they sign them |
