Workers revolt over toilet breaks, fines
2013-01-22 15:01
Beijing - Hundreds of Chinese factory workers angry about strictly timed
bathroom breaks and fines for starting work late held their Japanese and
Chinese managers hostage for a day and a half before police broke up the
strike.
About 1 000 workers at Shanghai Shinmei Electric Company held the 10
Japanese nationals and eight Chinese managers inside the factory in Shanghai
starting on Friday morning until 23:50 on Saturday, said a statement from the parent
company, Shinmei Electric, released on Monday.
It said the managers were released uninjured after 300 police officers were
called to the factory.
A security guard at the Shanghai plant said on Tuesday that workers had gone
on strike to protest the company's issuing of new work rules, including time
limits on bathroom breaks and fines for being late.
Requirements
"The workers demanded the scrapping of the ridiculously strict
requirements stipulating that workers only have two minutes to go to the toilet
and workers will be fined 50 yuan [$8] if they are late once and fired if they
are late twice," said the security guard, surnamed Feng.
"The managers were later freed when police intervened and when they
agreed to reconsider the rules."
The plant makes electromagnetic coils and other electronic products. It was
closed on Tuesday, said a man who answered at the plant but refused to identify
himself. He said no workers were on strike and staff would return to work on
Wednesday.
Strikes have become commonplace in China, as factories operating in highly
competitive markets try to get more productivity from their labour force and
workers connected by mobile phones and the internet become more aware of their
rights.
Shinmei Electric's statement didn't say specifically what the workers were
protesting, but said management reforms and labour policies were believed to be
a cause. It said talks were under way with workers at the plant and that police
were questioning staff.
A man who refused to give his name from the press office of the Shanghai
police bureau said he had no information about the incident and referred calls
to the Shanghai government press office, where calls rang unanswered.
- SAPA
