International retail giant Carrefour plans to revise the contracts of more than 40,000 mainland employees this week, but denies it is trying to dodge obligations under the new Labour Contract Law that takes effect next week.
Mainland media said Shanghai-based Carrefour China had demanded all employees sign a new contract by today, even though their original agreements would not have expired. The massive operation stirred speculation among workers that like other retail chains, the company wanted to shed senior workers.
Carrefour China spokesman Chen Bo confirmed the revisions yesterday, but stressed the company was aiming to update contracts to bring them in line with the new labour law.
'We have not forced our employees to sign the contracts and will not lay off any workers,' Mr Chen said. 'In fact, the new contract is not a compulsory option - it's just an amendment.' He said employees who refused to sign would still enjoy all benefits provided under the original contract.
'We have [also] extended the contract period from one year to two years this time,' he said. 'Carrefour is a labour-intensive business, and we have a high staff turnover problem. We want to keep stable working teams in our branches because we have spent a lot of resources training them over the years.'
He said that under the new contracts, employees could refuse to do all kinds of tasks that would violate the agreements. 'All content in the amendment is based on regulations from the new Labour Contract Law,' he said, adding that with the peak shopping season coming, management needed all staff to sign new contracts by the end of the year.