Don't make employees pay
Employees shouldn't be asked to suffer the most for the sake of helping the country weather the financial crisis, says an article on the website www.rednet.cn. Following is an excerpt:
Some members of the Guangdong provincial committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference have suggested that Guangdong should suspend employees' paid vacation during the financial crisis.
Paid vacation is a new benefit for employees in China, effective since the beginning of 2008, but it is yet to be widely enjoyed by employees. So, it is meaningless and absurd for CPPCC members to call employees to give up paid vacation to support the economic recovery when many have no paid vacation at all.
It's true that employees should share in the responsibility of employers and help them weather the financial crisis. But we shouldn't let employees sacrifice the most when facing financial woes. Enterprises have already cut pay and laid workers off, and now even the right to paid vacation is under threat.
We have created numerous ways to curb expenses for employees, but few similar curbing measures have been targeted at those enterprises' managers and government regulators. The different treatment would naturally lead to a new type of imbalance.
(China Daily 02/17/2009 page8)
