China’s economy continues to decline, impacting various industries. Recently, Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank notified its employees to return festive bonuses received over the past three years. This notice was delivered orally by branch managers without any written documentation, causing a stir online.
According to several self-proclaimed employees of Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank, the branch managers verbally relayed the message layer by layer that all festive bonuses received from 2022 to the present amount to nearly 14,000 yuan per person. The employees were told that the first installment of 2,500 yuan would be refunded, with the remainder to be deducted from their salaries. This process was entirely based on word of mouth without any formal written notifications or official documents.
Some insiders revealed, “They are retroactively deducting festive bonuses from the past three years without prior notice, repeatedly reducing salaries without explanation, holding endless meetings every day, and pressuring employees to take out personal loans.”
The incident quickly drew attention, with netizens expressing their discontent, questioning the bank’s actions, and highlighting the unethical nature of reclaiming festive bonuses. They criticized the bank for blurring the line between reclaiming wages and festive bonuses.
“Is this the rumored pay-to-work scheme?”, “Let the lawyers discuss the unpaid overtime for the past three years; maybe they can offset the festive bonuses and receive additional compensation,” “How can consumption be driven if this continues?”
“Compliance reform should not be transferred as a burden to employees. Companies need to incorporate humanistic care into rigid systems: defining their own management responsibilities and balancing compliance goals with employee rights through transparent processes and negotiation mechanisms. Otherwise, short-term compliance measures may lead to labor-management trust crises, undermining the cohesion and talent stability of businesses.”
On October 19th, in response to inquiries from “Yicai,” Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank stated, “On one hand, this is our further standardization of subsidy and welfare distribution to ensure compliance with relevant regulations and rules. On the other hand, we have explained the situation to all employees, with the vast majority of them understanding and supporting the decision.”
It was emphasized that the request for the return of festive bonuses is different from the practice of “reverse salary recovery.” The latter involves reducing, ceasing, or recovering performance-based pay due to employees’ violations of rules, misconduct, or exposure to above-average risks within their job responsibilities. This has now become a common practice among banks, especially publicly-listed ones.