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East China firms vow no payroll cut despite business slumps

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-28 18:50

Hangzhou -- Xie Liuqi did not lose his job in a rubber company in east China's Zhejiang Province when he packed things up for the Spring Festival vacation starting on Sunday to mark China's Lunar New Year.

His employer, the Hangzhou Rubber Group. Ltd., was among 200 firms in Hangzhou, Zhejiang's provincial capital, which endorsed a joint proposal vowing not to cut payroll amid the sweeping financial crisis.

Xie was fully paid and received a year-end bonus before a company-chartered passenger bus carried him and his fellow workers back to their home in neighboring Anhui Province.

Shen Jinrong, board chairman of the company, promised to 2,000 employees that their jobs will be secure when they return to work after the holiday, despite the fact the company's overseas orders fell sharply.

"Staff's confidence and loyalty is more precious than money for the company's business," said Shen.

Zhejiang Province was one of China's major manufacturing centers in the second half of 2008 and was hit hard by the financial crisis. More than 1,200 companies shut down and 300 business owners fled without undergoing  bankruptcy procedures.

They left behind them thousands of unpaid employees and huge amounts of debt, according to the provincial bureau of industry and commerce.

Shen said it was irresponsible for businessmen to cut payroll whenever their businesses were in trouble.

"There is a better way to exert the employees' enthusiasm in work and explore potential markets to ride out the crisis," he said.

He and other businessmen signed the proposal earlier this month promising not to cut payroll this year.

Their proposal was highly commended by Wang Guoping, secretary of the Hangzhou municipal committee.

In order to help businesses weather the crisis, the city government has slashed 152 items of administrative fees and issued policy stimulus packages for the manufacturing and export sectors.