In China, with the economic downturn persisting, reports of wage cuts and unpaid salaries have been coming from various regions. Recently, employees at the Datong Grain Reserve Depot under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Shanxi Province have also revealed instances of unpaid wages and suspended provident fund payments, affecting over a hundred people.
Mr. Zhou, an employee of Datong Grain Reserve Depot Limited Company, mentioned that he started working at the depot in 2009. Initially, the salary payments were regular, with him receiving around 2200 Chinese Yuan per month until 2021. However, around August 2022, after some leadership were taken away by the Chinese Communist Party discipline inspection committee, the salary payments were halted, and provident fund contributions ceased. It wasn’t until May 2024, when new leadership took over, that salaries began to be paid regularly, approximately 1500 Yuan per month. Mr. Zhou added that before May 2024, they would receive back payments for one or two months every few months.
As of October 2024, the company owes Mr. Zhou around 15,000 Yuan in unpaid wages and nearly three years’ worth of provident fund contributions, including full monthly salaries for four months, partial salaries for three months, and 3600 Yuan in heating fees from 2023.
According to Mr. Zhou, the company’s response was that they didn’t have the money to pay. Moreover, he mentioned that around a hundred employees at the company were also facing wage arrears.
Datong Grain Reserve Depot Limited Company operates under the supervision of the Datong City State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The 2023 annual report revealed that the company had 144 employees, with an operating income of 35.88 million Yuan and a total profit of negative 6.79 million Yuan.
On October 8th, the Datong Grain Reserve Depot Limited Company confirmed to Chinese media reporters that over a hundred employees were facing wage arrears, primarily due to difficult revenue conditions.
Public reports indicate that on August 9, 2022, the Party Secretary and Chairman of the Datong Grain Reserve Depot Limited Company, Su Yuhong, was removed from office. On January 29, 2023, an official report stated that Su Yuhong was suspected of corruption, bribery, misappropriation of public funds, abuse of power, and dereliction of duty as a state-owned company employee, and was referred for prosecution.
Since last year, there has been a surge in reports of wage arrears, bankruptcies, and layoffs in mainland China as the economy continues to decline. According to data from “Civic Dialogue Monitor” (CDM), a project of the non-profit organization Freedom House in the United States, the second quarter of 2024 recorded 805 dissent events, an 18% increase compared to the same period in 2023. The majority of these events were related to labor disputes (44%) and housing issues (21%).