BEIJING: Workers of a foreign firm in China are seeking compensation alleging that they have been asked to "bark like dogs" at monthly meetings, the latest dispute to hit international companies here which were hit by a spate of strikes over pay and conditions in recent months.
Twenty six former employees of the Shenzhen-based Chloride Phoenixtec Electronics Company in Guangdong province had appealed to the city’s labour arbitration authority, demanding that the company compensate them for insults and unfair dismissal of seven of them.
The workers, from the company’s production department, claimed that their former general manager, Zhang Hongyi, "humiliated workers by asking some of them to bark like dogs in front of their co-workers" during monthly meetings.
"We had collectively filed an application with the local arbitration committee against the company. And we were also considering appealing to the local court about the company threatening the employees’ families over the phone and insulting the employees by asking them to bark like dogs at monthly meetings," Song Jinhua, who had been fired by the company said.
Ex-manager Zhang, the claims had been exaggerated by a few ex-employees. "I don’t remember whether I asked people to bark in meetings, and even if I did, it would have been only a joke," he told the daily.
Pugi Gianluca, an Italian who just took over as general manager of the company, he didn’t know whether Zhang asked the employees to bark but the manager won’t be fired
"The main reason for the strike is that the employees were asking for better workings conditions, better shifts, higher bonuses and salaries," Gianluca said.
Labour disputes between Chinese employees and foreign management are nothing new in China. Just a month ago, a South Korean boss at a South Korean moulding plant in Dongguan, Guangdong, had to pay nearly $2,955 to a Chinese worker for beating him seriously.
These incidents come at a time when labour disputes are on the rise in this south China province amid a labour shortage. Workers often demand higher salaries and better working conditions. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6290109.cms?prtpage=1
2. China zoos in ‘barbaric’ animal abuse: report
HONG KONG- Chinese zoos and safari parks treat their animals "barbarically," including abusing them to perform tricks and depriving them of proper food and shelter, an animal welfare group said.
Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation said its investigation of 13 Chinese zoos and safari parks between September 2009 and August 2010 uncovered evidence of animals being beaten with sticks and metal hooks as well as tigers and lions with their teeth and claws removed, causing chronic pain.
The group’s 28-page report documents "the barbaric treatment of animals and the poor living conditions they are forced to endure."
"A large number of captive animal establishments in China provide animal performances as a form of entertainment for visitors. The techniques used to force such animals to perform tricks are cruel and abusive," said the report released Monday.
"Showmen frequently engage in negative reinforcement, whipping and striking the animals repeatedly, forcing them to carry out tricks that go against their natural behaviour."
The group said its probe also uncovered evidence of animals housed in "small, barren, concrete enclosures often in darkened rooms at the back of the performance areas away from the visitors."
"The living conditions for performing animals fail to meet their basic welfare needs. Many of the animals have no visible access to water," it said.
The report features photographs of bears being forced to "box" each other and ride motorcycles along a highwire, tigers prodded into jumping through flaming hoops, and elephants "performing uncomfortable and humiliating tricks such as standing on their heads, and spinning on one leg."
"There is little educational value in seeing animals in conditions that do not resemble their natural habitat," David Neale, the group’s animal welfare director, said in a statement.
"Teaching animals to perform inappropriate tricks does nothing to educate the public or foster respect for animals."
The report called on China to ban the use of wild animals in circus-style performances, prohibit the feeding of live prey to larger animals, and usher in a licensing system for zoos and safari parks.
China has been plagued by a series of scandals that has thrown the spotlight on poor conditions in many of the nation’s wildlife parks, prompting Beijing to draft the country’s first animal-protection law.
In recent months, 11 endangered Siberian tigers starved to death at a cash-strapped park in the northeastern province of Liaoning where they were fed chicken bones, and two others were shot after they mauled a worker.
Allegations that the zoo had harvested parts of the dead animals to make lucrative virility tonics caused an outcry, even in a nation where illegal trade in animal parts thrives due to their perceived medicinal benefits.
In northeastern Heilongjiang province, authorities also uncovered a mass grave of animals — including lions, tigers and leopards — that died of illness and malnutrition at a wildlife park, state media reported in March. http://www.ekantipur.com/2010/08/10/sports/china-zoos-in-barbaric-animal-abuse-report/320186/
