A Chinese company moved its offices to a remote mountain to encourage employees to resign and avoid paying their severance pay.
One of the advertising company's employees revealed that the new headquarters was in the Qinling Mountains, where it took about two hours to get there and there was no access to public transportation.
The South China Morning Post newspaper spoke to this man named Chang, who said that the company wanted to save on legal payments for laying off its employees.
“My colleagues who didn't have a car had to resort to a bus that ran every three hours and then walk another three kilometers over mountainous paths to get to the office,” Chang said.
According to his version, a taxi from the nearest train station cost between 50 and 60 yuan (about $8).
Additionally, Chang said the new headquarters has poor facilities and working conditions that are unsafe for employees.
The company wanted to save on severance pay by forcing its employees to resign. Photo: Freepik
The Chinese company It refused to provide transport subsidies to offset the costs that employees would incur as a result of the company's change of headquarters.
The case reached such a level that employees were forced to walk to allegedly use public toilets in a nearby town.
Protests and resignations
The employees decided to protest against the company and demand better working conditions. However, their efforts were unsuccessful and 14 of the more than 20 workers decided to sign a resignation agreement.
To the surprise of many, just four days after receiving this mass termination, the company decided to return to its headquarters and launched a call to hire staff.
Because of this, employees began to suspect that the company had launched a campaign to force them to resign.
Company representative Zhang refuted those claims, saying the measure was taken temporarily to reduce costs.
“The rent in the Central Business District was high and the new office was being renovated. “We had a host family, so we moved there temporarily for a week,” he said.
In light of the former employees' allegations, the official assured that they are considering taking legal action to damage the company's reputation and possibly cause economic losses.
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