A Western friend, a General Manager, told me he had been requested to attend a meeting called by Suzhou Industrial Park government officials.  He chose to blow it off and have his Chinese plant manager attend, instead. He already knew what the meeting was about: how to manage employee disenchantment.

Several thousand employees of the Taiwanese-owned factory Wintek in Suzhou Industrial Park had violently disagreed with its management the week before; and hundreds of employees from companies around the  Park protested at the  Park’s Labor bureau at the weekend about a new policy that prohibited them from withdrawing funds their companies had deposited into a housing fund the Park manages.  Both events were more akin to revolt, sparked by expectations Chinese employees have of the upcoming Spring Festival squeezed through a funnel of  privations from the previous year. In other words, they wanted the right to money they had stashed away or waited for as the traditional Spring Festival bonus. Typically, a sizable minority of staff pick up and return to their hometowns at Spring Festival, never to return: to find husbands and wives; to get married; to start businesses of their own with savings and the help of their families.

The network effect of interconnected privations and expectations – Spring Festival, a tough year operationally, lack of bonuses and the possibility they would not be able to take savings home with them – created an avalanche of worker disgruntlement.

Both instances have been resolved: the Taiwanese company relenting on the bonuses; and by SIP administration relenting on the withdrawal of funds.

In general, Western companies invested in the region tend to err on the side of generosity toward their employees; whereas overseas Chinese concerns have their own interests at heart. Western companies, then, should have little fear of events overtaking their operations, as long as they extended even a modicum of respect toward their employees during the economic downturn last year.

Operations and administrators who were either cheap(er) or (more) autocratic during the downturn might see a higher staff  turn-over than usual after Spring Festival this year. If not the occasional revolt.

Further reading: CDT, Apple Insider