Chinese internet giant Tencent withdraws free meals to contract employees in line with cost-cutting moves as growth stalls
- Tencent, China’s most valuable company, will cancel free meals to its contract employees from August 15
- The internet giant, long known for generous perks given to employees, has been slashing expenses since its revenue growth stalled in the first quarter
Those personnel, who are outsourced by third-party firms to work at Tencent for a predetermined period and sum of money, were told that they will have to start paying for meals from August 15, according to the two employees, who both declined to be named because they are not authorised to speak to media.
It is common practice for technology companies in China to outsource certain projects, such as testing software, to contract personnel who are not entitled to receive the same benefits as regular employees on a company’s payroll.
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Tencent had been offering free breakfast to both regular and contract employees at its office canteens since 2017. The free dinner perk was implemented from October last year, according to the company, which had a total headcount of 116,200 at the end of March.