A SHENZHEN-BASED catering company has been complained about by its employees after it defaulted on their wages for three months. The company is a subsidiary of Angel Food, a time-honored food company in Shenzhen that is facing a crisis in its business operation, the Shenzhen Evening News reported.

    Mai, an employee of Shenzhen Cihao Catering and Technology Co. Ltd., said that the company’s headquarters has around 50 employees. They were furloughed by the company Dec. 9 out of the blue, and they haven’t been paid since September.

    “The company is a subsidiary of Angel Food. We’ve prepared and distributed meals for many big events in Shenzhen such as Shenzhen Universiade and Shenzhen International Marathon,” he said.

    Mai said that the company had proposed a solution — paying the employees’ wages over three separate payments — but the employees disapproved, because they worried that it might be a stalling tactic.

    Then the company came up with another solution. It asked the employees to sign an agreement, which specified that a third party would pay their wages for the company, and that the third party would have priority in getting compensation after the company goes bankrupt. Additionally, the company asked the employees to sign another agreement to terminate their labor contracts.

    Mai said that the second solution also was disapproved of by the employees. “First of all, they didn’t identify the third party for us. Second, they only promised to pay our wages between September and November, without mentioning our wages in December,” he said. “What if they just got rid of us after we signed these agreements?”

    Another employee, surnamed Lai, said that many employees had worked for the company for nearly five years. “Our demand is really simple — getting our wages for the past three months,” he said, adding that they would resign from the company after obtaining their payments, and they wouldn’t ask for any compensation from the company.

    The company’s manager, surnamed Deng, said that the company is facing difficulties in its business operation. “We’ve proposed some solutions, but the employees disapproved of our proposals,” he said.

    Public data shows that the company’s chairman, Liang Qiusheng, is also the legal representative and chairman of Angel Food. (Zhang Yang)