Hundreds of laid-off workers massed outside the Shanghai factory of a Singaporean supplier to major consumer electronics companies today.
Up to 400 workers at the factory gate of Hi-P International said it was their third day of protesting against mass sackings due to the company’s decision to relocate manufacturing.
They said that they were seeking more information and improved terms.
A group of the workers held up a banner demanding: “We want an explanation! We want truth! Where is Hi-P’s truth? Where is the government’s credibility?”
Workers also accused the factory of violating labour standards.
One worker accused the firm of making staff work 18 or 19 hours in a day. “Sometimes the overtime is even longer than a normal eight-hour work day,” he said.
The company, founded in 1980, said its third-quarter revenue had risen by 34 per cent, but claimed that so had costs of materials and taxes.
Hi-P is shifting some of its production to Suzhou but has not paid the legally required amount of compensation to workers, who were laid off without notice.
Hi-P International is a contract manufacturer for the wireless telecommunications, consumer electronics and computing and automotive industries, with two-dozen factories and about 18,000 employees.
Recent strikes at factories and other major employers show the increased pressure on China’s workers amid weak demand in Europe and the US and rising costs. The country’s manufacturing contracted in November for the first time in nearly three years.
Beijing has begun reversing a two-year effort to cool the world’s second-biggest economy, seeking to counter slowdowns in factory production and property that are slowing growth.
foreigneditor@peoples-press.com
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