More than 1,000 workers at a Japanese hard-disk factory in Shenzhen, China, have been on strike since Sunday over severance pay, the company and news reports said Wednesday.
According to the workers, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Ltd., after acquiring shares not already owned in subsidiary Shenzhen Hailiang Storage Products Co., decided to sell its stake to U.S.-based hard-disk maker Western Digital Corp. without clarifying workers' compensation.
U.S.-based Radio Free Asia quoted a worker representative identified by the surname Xu as saying a Japanese manager told the workers that the amount of time they worked at the company will be discounted, wiping out their severance pay altogether.
Xu said that management has been dodging the question of compensation and that the strike will go on until they get an answer.
Undated photographs posted on the Internet show hundreds of workers gathered outside what appeared to be a factory, holding banners demanding compensation and calling the company's decision to ditch severance pay "shameful."
A Japanese manager reportedly arrived at the factory Monday morning to meet with the striking workers but failed to persuade them to return to work.