JUST BEFORE accounting manager Wang Jimin went on maternity leave in Beijing last December, she got an unexpected bonus. Her boss said he'd still pay part of her salary while she was away. 'I thought he was doing me a great favour since I wouldn't be back for such a long time,' she says.
Wang had no idea, however, that she was entitled to the full amount. There was another surprise in store for the 29-year-old when she returned to work at Beijing Yuqu Musical Instruments in the capital's southern Xuanwu district last month: her job had been taken by someone else and she'd been demoted to cashier. The 800 yuan per month that she'd been receiving on maternity leave became her new salary - less than a third of her original wage of 2,500 yuan. Her boss, Ma Jun, claims her performance had been unsatisfactory. Wang says she was punished for falling pregnant.
Wang's experience reflects a growing dilemma for career women in the mainland's competitive marketplace. Hence the saying, 'Choose the baby, and you'll lose your job. Choose the job, and you'll lose your husband.'
For a growing number of women like Wang, a baby - for most, the only one - frequently means demotion to junior positions, with fewer benefits and less pay.
Ma employed the replacement accounting manager on a cheaper wage. 'The person who was supposed to handle my work temporarily took over my position because she asked for less than 2,000 yuan a month,' says Wang, who no longer works for the company. 'She was trained by me before I went on leave. It's very unfair,' she says, sitting in the shabby apartment she shares with her husband and their four-month-old daughter.
Mainland employers can't legally terminate the contracts of pregnant or breast-feeding workers and, among other regulations, they're obliged to pay a worker's full salaries for the period of her pregnancy. But how these and other rules are enforced is less clear-cut and companies are finding ways to circumvent the system, lawyers say.
