Busted In China: McDonalds And KFC
I have been following with a great deal of interest the recent disclosures regarding various McDonalds and KFCs allegedly underpaying its workers. I was going to do a post on this, with the thesis that this is further proof that what is good for the Chinese domestic goose is not so good for the foreign gander. But, I just read an excellent post over at ImageThief, entitled, Thursday PR blog: Finger lickin' cheap that comprehensively covers the various issues. ImageThief's post rightfully approaches the matter from a public relations (PR) perspective.
For anyone who does business in China or is thinking of doing so, go read this post.
7-3-2011 Update: Unfortunately, the Imagethief post to which this post refers is no more.
Comments (12)
Read through and enter the discussion by using the form at the endnanheyangrouchuan - March 29, 2007 9:19 PM
And this is surprising?
Corporations are probably the only thing worse than China.
Bart Motes - March 29, 2007 9:23 PM
I was kind of shocked and appalled to discover that they were paid so little. But at the very nice cafe with wireless internet that I frequented in Shanghai, they were paid 2 yuan an hour. Like the author of the post, I winced slightly thereafter in ordering 30 yuan coffees.
China Law Blog - March 29, 2007 11:09 PM
nanheyangrouchuan --
Gosh, I did not know you viewed anything worse than China. Are you mellowing, or have you always thought this?
China Law Blog - March 29, 2007 11:10 PM
Bart --
I know!
zzyzx - March 30, 2007 10:31 AM
There are many places underpaying their workers in China, such as many restaurants and department stores. Thousands of girls are hired to stand there and smile at customers and have a monthly salary at 500 to 600 RMB or even less. I appreciate the business owners keep them being employed, but they have to follow the law to pay the girls with the minimum wage. I don�t get it why the media only questioned McDonald�s and KFC on the issue. What I can think is because the franchises are from a country where people are raised on democracy and the rule of law. Probably per their perception, Chinese businesses don�t have to follow the law to pay the minimum, but the franchises have to. I am not here to defend the McDonald�s and KFC�s owners for their underpaying employees and just want to share thoughts different. The owners need to take care of the issue if there is any wrongdoing at their employee compensations.
China Law Blog - March 30, 2007 5:28 PM
zzyzx --
That's how I see it too.
PiPi - March 30, 2007 9:01 PM
In this case as in many others, China is forging ahead with it's commitment to a flat playing field for all operations in China. Flat, not level.
When in China, do as the law says, not as the Chinese do. The laws are not intended to be enforced fairly - they're their to be interpreted and enforced as local government sees fit to protect their clan, kin and cash-cows.
Chris - March 31, 2007 4:41 AM
I started asking around after a friend told me McDonald's was paying around 3.4 yuan per hour in Dalian. Shenyang is a bit higher, it seems, at 3.9, while the Sichuan franchise where a friend of mine used to work paid 2.9 an hour. The fried who got me thinking about it put it this way:
"Every time they pull the lever on that soft-serve machine, they're looking at an hour of work on a cone."
Matt - March 31, 2007 3:56 PM
Hey,
Thanks for the post on my site. Gave a link back to you. I doubt we crossover much, but...
Take it easy,
M
China Law Blog - March 31, 2007 8:59 PM
PiPi --
Exactly! In fact, I am going to be doing another post on this tomorrow, based on the movie, The Painted Veil, which I just saw.
China Law Blog - March 31, 2007 9:03 PM
Chris --
I think Shenzhen has its own, higher, minimum wage. Are you saying it takes an hour to make the cone?
Reminds me of when I was in college and one day, a bunch of us (thinking we were clever) made up cards with the numbers 1 though 10 on them. Each time a student would make a cone, five of us would pull out a ranking card. The whole system was flawed in that it caused people to go crazy trying to make huge cones (with ice cream spilling off on to the floor from the failures) and most of us (me anyway), skewing the voting to the female of the species. We did draw quite the crowd though.
Stanley Seiden - July 3, 2011 8:15 PM
The links are broken! Can you replace them? I know that might be a tall request, but I'd love to read that post.
And great blog, by the way, Dan. Thanks.