Maimaicha's Employees Expose Unpaid Back-wages Issue
Ebrun, 12/13/12
A number of employees at Chinese online tea retailer Maimaicha.com reported to Ebrun today that there have been numerous cases of employees being owed back-wages since June 2012, and that the company's Shanghai subsidiary is close to bankruptcy.
Maimaicha is owned by Shandong Huaxia Chalian Chaye, whose Beijing, Shanghai, and Jinan subsidiaries are responsible, respectively, for the online B2C retailer's marketing and promotional efforts, product design, and technical support. All three subsidiaries owe employees back-wages.
Ebrun contacted Maimaicha brand management center director Mei Shan for confirmation. Ms. Mei denied that the company had failed to pay employees, saying that the reports were rumors started by individual employees as the result of dissatisfaction among some Shanghai employees over plans to merge Maimaicha's Shanghai subsidiary with its Beijing subsidiary. "Some employees have proposed unrealistic conditions for the severance procedure, conditions that the company cannot accept," Ms. Mei said, adding that Huaxia Chalian chairman Ma Yufeng is actively working to resolve the matter. She declined to reveal details of employee severance packages.
Employees of Maimaicha's Shanghai subsidiary, however, say they had not received any notice of plans to merge the company with Maimaicha's Beijing subsidiary. One employee revealed that Ma Yufeng had sent an open e-mail to all Huaxia Chalian employees on November 15 expressing the hope that employees would give him a month to take care of arrangements. Ma said that as some companies in the Huaxia Chalian Group are preparing to list, company assets have been frozen, leading to turnover problems in the short term.
The company Ma referred to is Rizhao Yuqing Chaye, a tea brand owned by Maimaicha. Ma also serves as chairman of Rizhao Yuqing Chaye. A former senior executive from Maimaicha said that that Huaxia Chalian had always maintained a strong focus on Rizhao Yuqing Chaye, at the expense of stronger development of Maimaicha. "Maimaicha raised RMB 100 mln in 2011," the former executive said. "Ultimately less than RMB 10 mln of that was spent on Maimaicha, and the vast majority of what was left over got invested in Yuqing. The plans for Yuqing to IPO are cleaning out the rest of the group even more, and putting great pressure on liquid assets, employee wages, and accounts payable to suppliers." The executive also revealed that Maimaicha currently sees only around RMB 2,000 per day in transactions.
Keywords: Ma Yufeng Huaxia Chalian Chaye Rizhao Yuqing Chaye Internet B2C Maimaicha Mei Shan wage HR e-commerce
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