The Chinese economy continues to decline, with reports of ongoing collective strikes over unpaid wages emerging from different regions. On August 28, a video circulated online showing employees of the First Hospital in Qingfeng, Puyang City, Henan Province, staging a collective protest for unpaid salaries. On August 30, news also spread online about China International Finance Limited (CIFC) implementing pay cuts and layoffs.
The online video displayed a group of hospital medical staff wearing white coats gathering on the road to demand their wages. On August 28, the First Hospital in Qingfeng issued a notice acknowledging the hardships faced by its employees and, despite insufficient funds to distribute performance bonuses for a month, managed to allocate partial funds to provide each employee (including leadership) with 1000 yuan in order to address their urgent needs.
The notice further stated that the hospital is actively raising funds and plans to distribute performance bonuses for January 2024 according to the new performance calculation method before the Mid-Autumn Festival. All outstanding employee benefits and commissioned loans will be addressed gradually.
On August 30, a doctor from the First Hospital in Qingfeng, using the alias Wang Ping, told “Zhengzai News,” “Salaries have not been paid from January to August this year. To stabilize employee morale, around August 25, 1000 yuan was distributed.”
Wang Ping mentioned that before the collective wage protest, the hospital had not presented any solutions and had been continuously delaying payments. Regarding the number of employees affected by unpaid wages and the extent of the financial shortfall, Wang Ping declined to disclose the details.
Wang Ping also revealed that previously, the hospital had sought contributions from department directors. “The hospital mentioned that there was a fund shortage, so they collected funds from individuals. For instance, some department heads or senior staff members contributed funds ranging from 100,000 to 200,000 yuan to use for pay distribution. The interest rates were slightly higher than those of banks.”
Public records indicate that the First Hospital in Qingfeng is a comprehensive Grade-A secondary hospital and serves as the main medical institution in Qingfeng County, with 800 beds.
Various netizens expressed their opinions, with comments such as “Even hospitals cannot pay salaries now,” “Industries that used to be the most profitable are unable to pay salaries, suggesting there may not be any profitable industries in the future,” and “It shouldn’t be like this; now, ordinary people need at least 500 yuan to leave a hospital after just one visit, including various tests even before seeing a doctor.”
Not limited to the First Hospital in Qingfeng, reports have been circulating online recently about companies across China implementing layoffs, pay cuts, and employees demanding wages.
On August 30, there were reports online that “Several employees of CIFC have received emails informing them of demotions and pay cuts. Those who do not sign to accept these changes will follow the company’s unified arrangements for future work.”
An informed source confirmed this incident to “First Financial,” stating that “Preparations for relevant assessments had been ongoing for several months, and this time, it was akin to requiring employees to sign confirmation of accepting demotions and agreeing to salary adjustments corresponding to the new job levels. If employees do not agree with these arrangements, they can choose to resign voluntarily. If they neither resign nor sign, the company will proceed to implement unified arrangements for demotions and pay cuts.”
Reportedly, in May of this year, CIFC planned to reduce salaries by 25% and cut about one-third of its investment banking division.
CIFC has already laid off 264 employees in the first half of this year. Financial reports indicate that, as of June 30, the number of employees in the CIFC group decreased from 15,327 at the end of 2023 to 15,081, with a reduction of 221 employees in mainland China and 25 overseas.
According to iFinD data by Tonghuashun, the combined number of employees in the first half of the year at 14 large securities firms with assets exceeding 200 billion decreased by 5,735. Among them, the largest reduction in staff came from Founder Securities, with 1,381 job cuts. Several securities firms, including CITIC Securities, CITIC Construction Investment Securities, Guosen Securities, and Guangfa Securities, all reduced their workforce by over 500 employees in the first half of the year.
Moreover, according to posts on the social media platform X (click here to view the post), on August 28, hundreds of workers from Guangdong Jiangmen China Communications Fourth Navigation Engineering Bureau’s Jiangmen Aviation Shipping Company went on strike collectively to demand unpaid wages overdue for a year.
The Jiangmen Aviation Shipping Company, a subsidiary jointly established by China Communications Fourth Navigation Engineering Bureau Limited (holdings) and Guangzhou Aviation Shipping Company Limited after the comprehensive completion and acceptance of the shipbuilding base construction in Xinhui District, Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province.
On the same day, hundreds of sanitation workers in Fengrun District, Tangshan, Hebei, went on strike to demand unpaid wages withheld for half a year from the supplier, Xinhua Environmental Technology Limited. According to a post on the platform X (click here to view the post), last November, Fengrun District sanitation workers had staged a continuous three-day strike to receive payment overdue for half a year.
On August 26 and 27, garbage collectors in Gongzhuling City, Jilin, went on strike for two consecutive days to demand their salaries. A post on platform X by netizens indicated that they had not been paid for six months (click here to view the post).
On August 26, construction workers at the Baofeng Power Plant project in Tuoket Industrial Park, Inner Mongolia, organized a collective strike to demand their wages from Shandong Energy Construction Company. A post on the platform X detailed the strike, which lasted until that evening (click here to view the post).
In Wenzhou County, Cangnan, Zhejiang Province, construction workers at the San’ao Nuclear Power Project of the Second Construction Company of China Construction Second Engineering Bureau went on strike due to months of unpaid wages. A post on the platform X mentioned that the strike continued into the night (click here to view the post).