Chinese Workers Demand Back Pay, Sit-In at Wal-Mart Distribution Center

What will it take for Wal-Mart to figure out that employees want to be paid for overtime work?  It shouldn’t be a difficult concept, but for some reason Wal-Mart keeps putting profit above the law.  US workers had their day in court - maybe now Chinese workers will get their fair share.

To learn more about Wal-Mart’s wage and hour violations, view our fact sheet.  To learn more about how wage and hour violations seem to follow Wal-Mart everywhere they go, continue reading.

55 Wal-Mart Employees Demand Back Overtime Pay [Sina (China)]

For the past two days at Shenzhen’s Longgang District’s Wal-Mart Dispatch Center on Kengzi Street, 55 employees have sat calmly in a meeting room demanding pay for worked overtime.  Their lengths of service vary – extending as long as 11 years. Prior to last August, none of the workers had received their overtime pay.  Instead of paying overtime, Wal-Mart gave the employees “compensative rest”.

Yesterday when this reporter arrived at the main entrance to the dispatch center, 20 to 30 employees had gathered.  They had engaged management in talks.  At four o’clock, the negotiating workers came to the main entrance.  Wal-Mart’s headquarter staff gave an upbeat report, asking the workers to wait for the company’s reply.

“The 55 of us sat in that conference room for two days and nights,” the workers said.  We are tired and hungry.  We’ve only had water and some dry snacks.

Two days ago, these workers appeared at the Wal-Mart distribution inspector general’s.  The response they received to their grievance was that they could legally use compensative rest instead of receiving overtime pay.  “We asked the inspector general to put this response in writing, but he was not willing,” the workers said.  Next, the workers spoke to the human resources director at Wal-Mart China’s headquarters.  There was no result.

“From last August until now, I haven’t received any overtime pay,” one worker said.  Since January 2004, this employee says he worked approximately 200 to 300 hours of overtime.  His monthly wage of 1600RMB divided by days in a month is 21.75RMB a day.  Overtime pay is usually time-and-a-half.  Every hour of overtime should amount to approximately 13RMB. The company owes him thousands in overtime.  The workers say the dispatch center has approximately 700 employees all compensated with compensative rest instead of overtime pay.

After August of last year, the company asked workers to sign a composite work hour application, in order to implement a “composite work hour system”, controlling overtime work.  Many employees said they did not sign the application.  The company no longer gives employees overtime.  One employee said she wanted to work overtime, but her request was denied by management. 

Yesterday, at Wal-Mart’s public relations department, one staff member said that the company is in the process of researching the overtime problem and will be able to give a response at a later time.  She also expressed that using compensative rest is not usual in the distribution industry.  Some days the work flow is heavy and employees need to work overtime, other days the flow does not require workers to stay at work for eight hours.  This public relations staff member thinks the company’s method is actually with concern for the employees – it is better that they can ensure a period of rest…

Lawyers say: 

According to Pan Dungang of Guangdong’s Wen Tian law firm Chinese Labor Law provides that overtime pay shall not be lower than 150% the worker’s pay; rest time pay shall not be lower than 200% the worker’s wages.  Consequently, using compensative rest instead of overtime pay is illegal.  As far as Wal-Mart’s implementation of a composite work hour system, it would need to pass the labor department’s examination in order to be implemented. 

The original Chinese text:

本报讯（记者 陈乐伟）昨日在龙岗区坑梓街道，沃尔玛配送中心55名员工在公司会议室静坐两天，讨要加班费，他们称，员工工龄长短不一，有的长达11年，在去年8月之前，都没有拿到过加班费，公司用“补休”代替加班工资的发放。

昨日下午3时许，记者抵达沃尔玛配送中心，大门口聚集了二三十名员工，他们称其他人正与公司管理层商谈。4时许，谈判的工人来到大门口。他们称，沃尔玛总部人员表示会向上汇报，让工人等待公司的回复。

“我们55人在公司会议室坐了两天，前天晚上也是在那里过的夜。”工人们说，累了，他们就躺倒休息一会；肚子饿了，就去买些干粮饮用水。

前天，静坐工人见到了沃尔玛中国物流总监，他们得到的答复是：用补休代替加班费是合法的。“我们让物流总监把这句话写下来，他不肯。”工人说。第二次跟他们商谈的是总部人力资源部相关负责人，依然没有一个结果。

“我从入职以来到去年8月份，从来没有拿到过加班工资。”一名参与静坐的工人说，他初步作了统计：2004年1月入职以来，他加班了约二三百个小时，一个月的毛薪1600元除以标准工作天数21.75天，再乘以1.5倍（加班费是平时工资的1.5倍），每小时的加班费约为13元左右，公司共欠他加班费数千元。工人称，沃尔玛配送中心有约700名员工，在去年8月以前，都是以补休代替加班费。

至于去年8月份以后，工人说，公司让员工签了一份综合工时的申请书，实行“综合工时制”，超出法定工作时间外的加班工资，按平时工资的1.5倍发放。一些员工表示，他们没在申请书上签名，公司不再给他们安排加班时间。一名姓李的员工称，有一次她想加班，主管拒绝了她的请求，“谁让她不（在申请书上）签名！”主管撂下一句话。

昨天下午，记者联系上沃尔玛总部公关部，一名工作人员称，公司正在研究加班费的问题，到时会给工人答复。她表示，以补休代替加班费，是根据物流行业的特点采取的方式。货物流量多时，需要员工加班，流量不足时，员工不需一天上足8小时。她认为，公司的办法其实是从关心员工的角度出发，能更好地保障他们的休息时间。至于员工不签“同意综合工时”的申请书，主管就不让他们加班，她称之前未听说过此事。

律师说法

广东闻天律师事务所潘敦刚律师认为：《劳动法》规定，安排劳动者延长工作时间的，要支付不低于工资的百分之一百五十的工资报酬；休息日安排劳动者工作又不能安排补休的，支付不低于工资的百分之二百的工资报酬。因此，以补休代替平时加班产生的加班工资是不合法的。至于沃尔玛实行的综合工时制，需要经过劳动部门审批，才能按照审批内容执行。本网站所刊登的所有内容，包括但不限于图片、文字及多媒体形式的新闻﹑信息等，未经著作权人合法授权，禁止一切形式的下载、转载使用或者建立镜像。否则，将依法追究其侵权责任。法律顾问：梁香禄、肖曼丽、罗志明侵权举报电话：020-87385923

Posted by Michael Mignano on Friday, January 04, 2008

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