Compiled by DIYANA PFORDTEN, CHOW HOW BAN and R. ARAVINTHAN
EMPLOYEES of Chinese new energy carmaker Jiyue Auto confronted their chief executive officer Xia Yiping at its headquarters in Shanghai on Thursday, amid the company’s ongoing financial crisis.
China Press reported that the workers surrounded Xia and even requested that his passport be handed over to them for fear he would flee the country due to the company’s debts.
Jiyue Auto was established in August last year as a second company between Geely and Baidu after the Jidu Auto company.
The Jiyue Auto workers demanded Xia settle their remuneration including benefits and incentives.
Videos and photos of the incident went viral on social media.
Xia told the employees that the company’s bank accounts had been frozen and that it would settle the social security issues of its employees in Beijing and Shanghai by Dec 27.
He said the company would need more time to deliberate the matter with its board of directors, adding that he was looking for ways to raise funds to get the company out of the doldrums.
He stressed that the company was still in business.
Pressure mounted on the company’s management after the automaker’s statement on Wednesday that it was restructuring its operations by merging departments and positions that had duplicate functions.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
