Four-yuan Scheme What can a part-time Chinese employee of McDonald's afford by his hourly pay? Only two small ice creams, which are valued at four yuan (US50cents). A McDonald's outlet. [File]American fast-food giants McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) are being bombarded for their work contracts which offer their part-time Chinese employees just four yuan per hour, well under the state requirement, state media reported. An employee is entitled to no less than 4.3 yuan per work hour, said a rule released by the Guangzhou city government last November. The hourly pay averages 7.5 yuan in the city. An unnamed source in Guangzhou told the New Express newspaper that the contract violated the legal rights of employees. "Once administrative departments discover acts of violations, officials will order these enterprises to revamp and compensate the employers for their losses," the source told the Guangzhou-based paper. "If the problem is so grave that a punishment will be handed out," the source said without giving details. The source also cast doubts on the probation system implemented by the fast-food giants. "Part-time employees don't need to undergo a one-month probation period." McDonald's and KFC have nearly 3,000 outlets all over China and a work force of nearly 200,000, according to a state media report. Zhu Yongping, a Guangzhou lawyer, has begun to move for the rights of employees. He told the paper that the work contracts have 'seriously violated' the legal rights of employees. A Lin, a McDonald's employee in Guangzhou, regarded McDonald's as a respectable foreign-funded enterprise before starting to work there. But the working experience has changed her mind. "I don't have enough rest. It seems that I was overly exploited." Cui Minghuan, Manager of KFC'S Guangdong market, refuted the claims of rights violations, saying the current rule of the minimum hourly rates of pay for the non-full-time employees implemented in the province is not applicable to the part-time employees working for KFC. "KFC does not breach relevant laws in China." Cui said these part-time employees are neither full-time workers nor non-full-time workers. "Their hourly rates of pay cannot be measured by the rule. An unnamed offical with the Provincial Department of Labor and Social Security said Cui's words are ridiculous. "So what kinds of workers they are on earth? " The official said the rule is applied to these part-time employees. Mcdonald said in a written statement that "it is always committed to relevant laws and regulations in China." Central Government Actions The report came just days after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in his work report to the congress in early March, called for more efforts to implement the minimum hourly wage system in a bid to protect the workers' rights. The minimum wage system aims to protect the rights of Chinese employees. For example, Bejing has set a minimum wage about 550 yuan per month, while the economic hub Shanghai has a minimum wage about 650 yuan. The central government has beefed up efforts to protect the rights of its huge crowd of employees to quell any likelihood of unrest and maintain social stability. China is planning to adopt an unemployment law that aims to build an unemployment benefit system. The draft law is aiming at promoting employment around the country. The law states that the government will implement new policies, such as boosting professional training and increasing financial investment in employment promotion. As discrimination turns rife in China, the draft law contains a clause on anti-discrimination in an effort to provide employment equality in the country. The clause states that discrimination against job seekers with respect to their background, ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs, age, or physical disability, will be prohibited. The government is also taking actions to set up trade unions in foreign-funded enterprises in China. Up to date, about 26 percent of China's 150,000 overseas-funded enterprises have established trade unions, with a total membership of 4.29 million, previous media report said. However, McDonald's and KFC have not set up unions so far.
GUANGZHOU: Having a good job is pretty important to many women - that is unless they can find a wealthy husband to look after them.A recent survey of women in Guangdong Province revealed that almost half would rather prefer marry a rich man than get a good job.At 45.2 percent, the figure is 8.9 percent higher than the country's average.The survey showed many women are still very conservative in the province that borders Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, according to an official from Guangdong Provincial Women's Federation.The federation conducted the "Survey and Analysis on the Social Gender Concepts in Guangdong Province" early this year."A large percentage of local women still have the traditional idea of relying on their husbands after they have married," said the official who did not want to be named yesterday.Women who are less educated have a stronger desire to marry rich men and rely on their husbands, she added.Chen Wenqi, a local white collar worker, however, said she would refuse to rely on her future husband.Chen said she would never marry a rich man who she did not love at all."Men and women should be equal both at work and at home and wives should not rely much on their husbands if they have the ability to work," Chen told China Daily yesterday.The 27-year-old works for a local foreign-funded logistics company.The survey also revealed the number of rural women who said a rich husband was better than having a good job, was 11.7 percent more than their urban counterparts."The tendency of independence often goes against the economic and social status of the women," Wang Xiongjun, a sociology PhD student at Peking University, said."The more you can support yourself with a decent life, the less you are willing to depend on others, even your spouse."And 75.1 percent of the Cantonese women said they would continue to work even after they married rich husbands.The figure is also nearly 13 percent lower than the country's average.Most of the local women agreed that husbands should focus their efforts on work and social events while wives must spend much of their time on family and housework.More than 40 percent of women said being good looking was more beneficial to finding a good job, then having ability.On the sex issue, men are slightly more lenient than women when it comes to forgiving infidelity. About 47.5 percent of women said they would excuse their husbands for being unfaithful once, compared to 50.3 percent of men.
KUNMING -- A gas blast in a private coal mine has killed at least seven miners and injured five in southwest China's Yunnan Province, sources with the local government said Saturday.The blast occurred around 6:00 a.m. Saturday in the Shunxing Coal Mine in Fuyuan Township of Qujing City, in eastern Yunnan. Twenty-seven miners were working underground, and fourteen people managed to escape.More than 400 rescuers struggled to pull out seven bodies and five miners alive. One miner remains missing.The injured workers are being treated in a local hospital.The coal mine, which was built in 1984 with a designed production capacity of 90,000 tons, had been ordered to suspend operation and go through renovation after county coal mine administration staffs inspected the mine on Friday, but coal mine managers secretly organized the miners to work in the night.Local officials are investigating into the cause of the accident.
The Chinese-African People's Friendship Association (CAPFA) will nominate 10 Africans Who Have Deeply Moved Chinese People next month, in a moved aimed at cementing civilian diplomacy between the two sides.The 10 candidates are expected to be unveiled at the next Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FCAC) late next year.Chen Haosu"CAPFA's recognition will benefit both peoples by enhancing mutual understanding and trust," Chen Haosu, president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, said.The awards will go to Africans "who have made great contributions to bilateral ties", Wang Tong, an representative of the CAPFA, said, adding that the association is identifying criteria of eligible candidates.The first round of nominations will involve all 131 councilors of the CAPFA, Liu Hongmin, also from the association, said."Our councilors include big Chinese entrepreneurs such as Huawei Technologies and ZTE, among others," he said. "They are the most suitable to put forward nominees because of their significant investments in Africa."Liu said the 10 winners will be just one part of the second China-Africa Friendship Award. The other part will be the 10 Chinese Who Have Deeply Moved the African People. This will be the second time such awards have been givenThe first 10 winners - which included doctors, journalists, scholars and politicians - were announced in Beijing during the FCAC in November 2006."These awards reflect sincere friendship and intense people-to-people communication, though China and Africa are distant from each other," Dai Yan, a former councilor in Ghana, said."But both peoples still have a long way to go to truly understand each other because of cultural differences," he said. More African people have traveled to China as bilateral ties have developed over the past years.The number of Africans coming to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, has increased by 30 percent every year since 2003. Most of these newcomers are traders.The city now has about 20,000 African residents, Huang Shiding, of the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, estimated.Beyond the world of business, "500-600 African students are studying in universities and colleges in Beijing," Wang said.Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, a growing number of Chinese people have settled down in Africa.In one reflection of the impact they are making, people in Nigeria crowned tribal chieftains from China in 2001 and 2007.
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SHENZHEN: Companies in the Pearl River Delta area, the country's manufacturing powerhouse, are raising wages to attract migrant workers amid fears of a worsening labor shortage, a survey has shown.The survey was conducted by the service center of Guangzhou human resources markets, which looked at 252 companies with at least 200 employees each.The poll found out that the average monthly salary offered to new staff was up 13 percent from last year at 1,160 yuan (2).The survey also showed that nearly 70 percent of the companies said they will hire new employees this year, up 20 percent from the same period of last year.Still, the number of job-hunters has decreased and are said to be more picky, the Guangzhou Daily reported.The first job fair in Guangzhou after the Spring Festival break on Friday reportedly offered about 7,000 vacancies, but attracted only 4,000 job-seekers.Figures from the Guangzhou labor authority showed that sectors such as the textile, toy-making, construction, catering, electronics and service industries were top of the list for workers.It was particularly difficult for the textile and toy-making industries to hire workers since such companies could offer an average monthly salary of just 960 yuan, far below what is available across the board, the labor authority said.The situation was said to be similar in other cities in the Pearl River Delta region, such as Shenzhen and Dongguan, which has seen industrial restructuring and experienced the impact of the new labor law, researchers said.However, research by the Asian Footwear Association showed that close to 1,000 shoemaking factories closed or moved out of the Pearl River Delta region last year, with 25 percent setting up in Southeast Asian countries, 50 percent in other mainland cities and about 25 percent adopting a wait-and-see approach."The industrial repositioning of the Pearl River Delta region has forced some of the companies in the region, especially those with less competitive edge in the market, to close or move out," Ding Li, a researcher with Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, said."The flow of migrant labor has been a clear indication of that."The appreciation of the yuan, raw material price hikes and adjustment of export policies have also seen many private firms and companies funded by businesses from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan slowing down demand for migrant workers, the Guangdong labor authority said.
China's natural gas output would at least double the present volume in the coming decade to reach 150 billion to 200 billion cubic meters, PetroChina Vice President Jia Chengzao said on Tuesday. PetroChina, the country's leading natural gas producer, alone has reported an annual output rise of 10 billion cubic meters for two consecutive years, he said. "We will strive to keep the same growth rate this year," said Jia, a member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, who is attending the annual political advisory session. His company produces about 75 percent of China's total natural gas output. Recent discoveries of new gas fields, including Jidong Nanpu Oil Field in north China's Bohai Bay, which contains 1.18 billion tons of oil and gas reserves, would boost China's natural gas sector and optimize its energy structure, said Jia. "China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) will probably announce the proven reserves of the Longgang gasfield in the southwestern Sichuan Province around the end of this year," he said. Industry insiders believe the Longgang gasfield contains at least 700 billion cubic meters of estimated reserves. China's natural gas output reached 69.31 billion cubic meters last year, up 23.1 percent year-on-year, according to China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association. Listed in Hong Kong and New York, PetroChina Company Limited is the listing arm of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the largest oil producer of China.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Central bank chiefs from the U.S., Europe and Japan warned Tuesday of the risks of the Chinese economy overheating, potentially adding to inflationary pressures in other countries. U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet also urged Beijing to let its currency rise in value, saying it would benefit both China and the global economy. "A quick pace toward greater flexibility would be in China's interest and create more flexibility for monetary policy to address the potential overheating of their economy," Bernanke said in a satellite linkup with a banking conference in Cape Town. "We could all be better off, China on the one hand and the global economy on the other hand," echoed Trichet. Critics argue that China is keeping its currency artificially low, contributing to its massive trade surplus with other countries and undermining competitors' prices. Both Bernanke and Trichet conceded that the cheapness of Chinese products flooding world markets had helped reduce global inflation, although said this was balanced by China's huge appetite for fuel and raw materials -- which has contributed to higher oil prices. Overall, China's impact on global inflation was "modest," Bernanke said. China is one of the world's fastest-growing economies, and its expansion has had a ripple effect on prosperity in other countries and offset more modest growth rates in North America, Europe and Japan. Trichet said the current boom was "absolutely exceptional in the global economy," but warned that this could not last indefinitely. "Complacency would be the worst possible advice for all of us," he said. Japan, where growth is a sluggish 2 percent, is keeping a watchful eye on the new Asian giant. "We need to be mindful of the risk of overheating and we can't rule out some risk of inflation in the Chinese economy," said Toshihiko Fukui, governor of Japan's central bank. China is witnessing a stock market boom, with millions of first-time investors jumping into the market, tapping savings and retirement accounts and mortgaging homes to buy stocks. Authorities are worried that the new money is fueling a bubble in prices. Chinese stocks rebounded Tuesday in volatile trading after their sharpest one-day drop in three months a day earlier as strong buying by institutions offset selling by retail investors. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 8.3 percent on Monday -- the benchmark's sharpest decline since an 8.8 percent drop Feb. 27 triggered a global market sell-off.
Four-yuan Scheme What can a part-time Chinese employee of McDonald's afford by his hourly pay? Only two small ice creams, which are valued at four yuan (US50cents). A McDonald's outlet. [File]American fast-food giants McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) are being bombarded for their work contracts which offer their part-time Chinese employees just four yuan per hour, well under the state requirement, state media reported. An employee is entitled to no less than 4.3 yuan per work hour, said a rule released by the Guangzhou city government last November. The hourly pay averages 7.5 yuan in the city. An unnamed source in Guangzhou told the New Express newspaper that the contract violated the legal rights of employees. "Once administrative departments discover acts of violations, officials will order these enterprises to revamp and compensate the employers for their losses," the source told the Guangzhou-based paper. "If the problem is so grave that a punishment will be handed out," the source said without giving details. The source also cast doubts on the probation system implemented by the fast-food giants. "Part-time employees don't need to undergo a one-month probation period." McDonald's and KFC have nearly 3,000 outlets all over China and a work force of nearly 200,000, according to a state media report. Zhu Yongping, a Guangzhou lawyer, has begun to move for the rights of employees. He told the paper that the work contracts have 'seriously violated' the legal rights of employees. A Lin, a McDonald's employee in Guangzhou, regarded McDonald's as a respectable foreign-funded enterprise before starting to work there. But the working experience has changed her mind. "I don't have enough rest. It seems that I was overly exploited." Cui Minghuan, Manager of KFC'S Guangdong market, refuted the claims of rights violations, saying the current rule of the minimum hourly rates of pay for the non-full-time employees implemented in the province is not applicable to the part-time employees working for KFC. "KFC does not breach relevant laws in China." Cui said these part-time employees are neither full-time workers nor non-full-time workers. "Their hourly rates of pay cannot be measured by the rule. An unnamed offical with the Provincial Department of Labor and Social Security said Cui's words are ridiculous. "So what kinds of workers they are on earth? " The official said the rule is applied to these part-time employees. Mcdonald said in a written statement that "it is always committed to relevant laws and regulations in China." Central Government Actions The report came just days after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in his work report to the congress in early March, called for more efforts to implement the minimum hourly wage system in a bid to protect the workers' rights. The minimum wage system aims to protect the rights of Chinese employees. For example, Bejing has set a minimum wage about 550 yuan per month, while the economic hub Shanghai has a minimum wage about 650 yuan. The central government has beefed up efforts to protect the rights of its huge crowd of employees to quell any likelihood of unrest and maintain social stability. China is planning to adopt an unemployment law that aims to build an unemployment benefit system. The draft law is aiming at promoting employment around the country. The law states that the government will implement new policies, such as boosting professional training and increasing financial investment in employment promotion. As discrimination turns rife in China, the draft law contains a clause on anti-discrimination in an effort to provide employment equality in the country. The clause states that discrimination against job seekers with respect to their background, ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs, age, or physical disability, will be prohibited. The government is also taking actions to set up trade unions in foreign-funded enterprises in China. Up to date, about 26 percent of China's 150,000 overseas-funded enterprises have established trade unions, with a total membership of 4.29 million, previous media report said. However, McDonald's and KFC have not set up unions so far.