Managers at a Chinese company have been jailed for forcing workers to drink urine and eat cockroaches for failing to meet sales targets, according to a report in an English-language newspaper.
A video that surfaced on social media also seemed to show staff being whipped with a belt, the South China Morning Post reported.
Sales targets
Screenshots posted on the popular social media platform Weibo showed text messages apparently sent by managers threatening punishment.
One example read: “If the sales goal has not been met by the end of this month, the team leader will have to eat three cockroaches for each failed sale”
Being forced to drink vinegar or toilet water, selling condoms and sanitary pads on the street and having their heads shaved were said to be among the initiation-style punishments dished out at the home renovation firm.
Drinking ‘urine’
Two managers have been jailed for 10 days and a third manager is facing five days in prison, the paper reported.
The video, which has clocked up more than 540,000 views, appears to show a man standing topless in the centre of a room being whipped as a circle of people stand watching.
Other staff said to work for the company in Guizhou city in the southwestern part of the country are filmed holding their noses as they drink a yellow liquid from plastic cups.
Asked why they had not left, employees claimed they were owed two months’ salary, which the company had threatened withhold if the staff members quit.
Beijing forbids workers from organising into labour movements, trade unions or strikes.
