An internet engineering firm sent 10 new sales staff to beg on a main shopping street as part of their training in Changchun city, in northeastern China’s Jilin province, state media said on Tuesday.
Company owner Li Jinghua said the exercise was designed to teach the new staff to be thick-skinned and less self-conscious in public, China News Service said.
”Making the staff kneel on the busiest street [in Changchun] is meant to rid them of their shyness so that they can be brave enough to face clients,” Li was quoted as saying.
The agency showed a photograph of one of the firm’s smartly dressed staff kneeling in front of curious pedestrians, saying he and the nine other trainees were begging every 100m along Changchun’s Chongqing Road on Monday afternoon.
Li said her company would not sack anyone who refused to beg, but a local sociologist said the exercise was ”insulting” and infringed upon the human rights of the trainees.
Such practices reflect a ”bad moral climate” and could send the wrong signal to youngsters, Professor Liu Shaojie of Jinlin University was quoted as saying.
As China reforms its economy and millions of people seek jobs, managers of private firms are increasingly able to abuse staff without any interference by local authorities.
State media regularly highlight cases of overworking and unsafe labour practices. — Sapa-DPA