Four-yuan Scheme

What can a part-time Chinese employee of McDonald's can afford by his hourly pay?

Only two small ice creams, which are valued at four yuan (US50cents).

A McDonald's outlet. [File]

American fast-food giants McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) are being bombarded for their work contracts which offer their part-time Chinese employees just four yuan per hour, well under the state requirement, state media reported

An employee is entitled to no less than 4.3 yuan per work hour, said a rule released by the Guangzhou city government last November. The hourly pay averages 7.5 yuan in the city.

An unnamed source in Guangzhou told the New Express newspaper that the contract violated the legal rights of employees.

"Once administrative departments discover acts of violations, officials will order these enterprises to revamp and compensate the employers for their losses," the source told the Guangzhou-based paper.

"If the problem is so grave that a punishment will be handed out," the source said without giving details.

The source also cast doubts on the probation system implemented by the fast-food giants.

"Part-time employees don't need to undergo a one-month probation period."

McDonald's and KFC have nearly 3,000 outlets all over China and a work force of nearly 200,000, according to a state media report.

Zhu Yongping, a Guangzhou lawyer, has begun to move for the rights of employees.

He told the paper that the work contracts have 'seriously violated' the legal rights of employees.

A Lin, a McDonald's employee in Guangzhou, regarded McDonald's as a respectable foreign-funded enterprise before starting to work there. But the working experience has changed her mind.

"I don't have enough rest. It seems that I was overly exploited."

Comments from the two fast-food giants are not immediately available.

Central Government Actions

The report came just days after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in his work report to the congress in early March, called for more efforts to implement the minimum hourly wage system in a bid to protect the workers' rights.

The minimum wage system aims to protect the rights of Chinese employees. For example, Bejing has set a minimum wage about 550 yuan per month, while the economic hub Shanghai has a minimum wage about 650 yuan.

The central government has beefed up efforts to protect the rights of its huge crowd of employers to quell any likelihood of unrest and maintain social stability.

China is planning to adopt an unemployment law that aims to build an unemployment benefit system.

The draft law is aiming at promoting employment around the country. The law states that the government will implement new policies, such as boosting professional training and increasing financial investment in employment promotion.

As discrimination turns rife in China, the draft law contains a clause on anti-discrimination in an effort to provide employment equality in the country.

The clause states that discrimination against job seekers with respect to their background, ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs, age, or physical disability, will be prohibited.

The government is also taking actions to set up trade unions in foreign-funded enterprises in China. .

Up to date, about 26 percent of China's 150,000 overseas-funded enterprises have established trade unions, with a total membership of 4.29 million, previous media report said.

However, McDonald's and KFC have not set up unions so far.

Editor: Yan