Benefits are good, profits have increased so the company decided: Allow employees to voluntarily cut salaries?
Employees said the move was intended to "test loyalty", and the company responded that employees are generally genuinely happy and satisfied
When the company's earnings are good, the boss says "allow employees to voluntarily cut their salaries"?
Recently, the previous screenshot on Zhihu caused heated discussion among netizens. The screenshot dialogue shows that “this year the company has good benefits and profits have increased significantly. The company has decided to allow employees to voluntarily apply for a monthly reduction of 10% of their benefits”.
The Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter learned that the company is "Guangzhou Duoyi Network Co., Ltd." and the speaker in the group is its founder Xu Bo.
According to an interview with a reporter from Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News, the employee of the screenshot group dialogue has resigned.
Many other employees of the company revealed to reporters that "voluntary salary cuts" are the company's compliance/loyalty test, and similar tests happen every year in the company.
In this regard, on November 7th, the official Weibo of Duoyi Network issued an explanation announcement.
According to the announcement, voluntary salary reduction is a reasonable and legal right of employees. All old TOEIC employees and executives have applied for voluntary salary reduction activities, and their hearts are generally genuine and happy.
93% of all employees eligible to participate in the event participated in this event.
Lawyer analysis
Is "voluntary salary cut" illegal?
Does it violate labor laws to allow employees to choose "voluntary pay cuts"?
On November 6, a reporter from Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News interviewed Li Yan, a partner of Tiance (Beijing) Law Firm. He said that from the screenshots of the dialogue, there is an intention to intimidate employees and this method is not appropriate.
"Voluntary salary reduction is equivalent to an invitation. Workers have the right to not accept this invitation. If they are treated differently, they can make normal claims." In this incident, Li Yan believes that although the labor law and labor contract law give the company a basis Its operating efficiency sets the corresponding salary performance evaluation system and salary, but this power should not be abused. The content shown in the current screenshot does not belong to the situation where the company can unilaterally propose a salary reduction. If the company makes a salary reduction in this form Or resignation should be a violation of labor law.
If the company is experiencing difficulties, it can make salary changes through consultation with employees, but the current statement is "the company has good returns." A salary reduction in this case can be regarded as a violation of the labor law.
Li Yan also said that if an employee is resigned because he is unwilling to lower his salary, the company is breaking the labor contract illegally.
Yuan Yayang, a legal person who has been in the legal profession for 8 years and is good at labor judges, told the Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter that the purpose of asking employees to take the initiative to propose a salary cut is to avoid the illegality of unilateral salary cuts.
"Salary reduction is a change in the labor contract. According to the law, the change of the labor contract must be negotiated and agreed by both parties. In principle, a written agreement must be signed. If the agreement is not signed, the employee does not raise an objection within 30 days after the change. In fact, I think it tacitly approve the effectiveness of the salary cut." Yuan Yayang said.
According to employees, the salary cut refers to the reduction of bonuses.
Yuan Yayang pointed out that the bonus part actually belongs to performance wages, not fixed wages.
Decreasing bonuses may not be considered as a change in the labor contract.
Li Yan believes that bonuses are also part of salary income. Whether lowering bonuses is to change the labor contract and whether to take advantage of legal loopholes depends on the company's performance system.
If an employee is dismissed because of this, there is a unilateral notice of termination of the contract, and it is recommended to apply for labor arbitration directly with the notice.
Title of current employee:
This belongs to the company's "loyalty test"
Employees said that this series of operations are regarded as "compliance tests" by internal employees, with the purpose of "testing loyalty" and "excluding dissidents". This type of test can be regarded as an alternative "corporate culture" within the company, which basically occurs every year.
According to screenshots from the Internet, the person in charge of the company said that the salary cut means that the monthly salary will not increase this year. After the annual adjustment, the monthly salary will be reduced by 10% next year, and those who have been in the company for more than 24 months can Apply for a "voluntary salary reduction."
On November 6, the screenshot employee showed up on Zhihu, indicating that the picture was taken by himself but not uploaded to the Internet by himself.
At present, the employee has resigned and issued a certificate of termination of the labor contract, saying that he did not expect to cause such a big concern, and he was "a little anxious".
The employee restored the incident that day. On November 3, after he took a screenshot, he immediately received a question from the founder of the company, Xu Bo, admitting that he took the screenshot, and the personnel issued a certificate of termination of the labor contract on the same day.
The employee ridiculed himself for "resigning at the speed of light."
Afterwards, the employee learned that the system had a blind watermark, and the screenshot could show his job ID.
But he said that he resigned voluntarily and was not coerced by the company.
The employee pointed out that the "voluntary salary cut operation" is more like "fishing", and it is the boss who wants to use someone who completely trusts him.
But he didn't approve of this kind of operation, "Mr. Xu's three views do not match me, so he proposed to resign."
Another current employee revealed to the Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News that after the "screenshot incident" occurred, Xu Bo was still judging and complaining about the employee in the large group, and two employees who were close to the employee on weekdays were also "leaved."
The current employee also said that as many as 93% of the people in the company choose to cut their salary, and it is not clear whether 7% will be affected.
This is not the first time that TOEIC has been hotly searched due to similar incidents.
Last year, it was also a hot topic that Duoyi.com requires employees who have been employed for one year or more to send thank you red envelopes to Xu Bo, ranging from 100 yuan to 500 yuan.
As a result of this incident, Xu Bo announced at the annual meeting that all red envelopes would be rejected and the employees would be refunded ten times.
This series of operations is regarded by internal employees as a "compliance test" with the purpose of "testing loyalty" and "excluding dissidents."
Xiao Wu, a recently resigned employee, told the Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter that this type of test can be regarded as an alternative "corporate culture" within the company, and it will happen every year.
In addition, there will be irregular voting, and "wrong answers" will be "punished" to varying degrees, ranging from review to resignation.
TOEIC response:
Voluntary salary reduction is a reasonable and legal right of employees
The company's announcement stated that voluntary salary reductions are a reasonable and legal right of employees, and 100% of TOEIC's old employees and executives applied to participate in voluntary salary reduction activities. They were generally genuinely happy and satisfied.
93% of all employees eligible to participate in the event participated in this event.
In the gaming circle, Xu Bo is quite famous.
Before founding TOYI, he worked for NetEase. The well-known games "Fantasy Westward Journey", "Dream World" and "Shen Wu" are all his leading products.
According to Tianyan Check, the full name of Duoyi Network Company is Guangzhou Duoyi Network Co., Ltd. It was established in 2006. The legal representative is Xu Bo, who is also the actual controller of the company, holding 99.5% of the shares.
On May 12, 2020, Xu Bo ranked 186th in the "2020 New Fortune 500 Rich List" with a wealth of 15.71 billion yuan.
He has previously published a series of controversial remarks on Weibo: including anti-feminism, opposition to women's higher education, and opposition to women's freedom of reproduction.
In October 2018, the article "A former NetEase executive with a net worth of 28 billion, gave birth to 12 babies, and the reality version of polygamy" put Xu Bo on the hot search.
After NetEase "lay the gun", it quickly issued a statement saying that the main reason for Xu Bo's resignation was the disagreement of the two sides' ideas, and emphasized that they should stick to and defend the linear values with a bottom line.
Later Xu Bo also appeared to speak, saying that he had not made any remarks advocating polygamy.
On November 7th, Duoyi.com published the "Announcement of Duoyi.com on Voluntary Salary Reduction Activities" on its official Weibo, and responded to this matter.
According to the announcement, voluntary salary reduction is a reasonable and legal right of employees. All old TOEIC employees and executives have applied for voluntary salary reduction activities, and their hearts are generally genuine and happy.
93% of all employees eligible to participate in the event participated in this event.
In the announcement, TOEIC disclosed the name, work experience and other information of the employees in the screenshots, stating that they "have a monthly salary of 7,000 in TOEIC, but expects TOEIC to give him an annual salary of 500,000 in 5 years."
The employee also responded to the matter with the help of the online platform, "After 5 years of written application, 500,000, normal people can see the truth."
In addition, a former employee of TOEIC revealed to reporters that "500,000 in 5 years" is the future career plan written by the parties before, which was "distorted" into "written expectations" in this statement.
Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News Reporter Wang Tian