A software engineer who abused his position to gather account information on almost one million people has been sentenced to five years for credit card fraud.
The organizers of a snow carnival might sue a local newspaper after it reported almost 300 students had protested against low wages for part-time work over the Spring Festival.
The Beijing Times wrote yesterday that nearly 300 university students blocked a door of the Auti Outdoors Company for Winter Children Day. It said the students had signed contracts with the company from Jan 9 to March 1.
According to the article, the students claimed the company had promised to pay double wages for holiday work over the festival, 160 yuan per day, but the company later refused to pay the new rate.
Yu Tao, a spokesman of the carnival, said the contract asked the students to work from 9 am to 4 pm or 4 pm to 9 pm every day over the period. The wage is normally 50 yuan a day, which was then doubled during the Spring Festival.
"The newspaper was wrong. We never promised 160 yuan a day. We told students they would get 80 yuan a day before their working hours were extended on Jan 12, but didn't say this rate would be doubled during the festival," he said.
He also denied that the students had protested, adding that they had queued up in the corridor to collect their wages.
The students had their own version of the story.
"They told us we would get 160 yuan a day over the Spring Festival. It was 60 yuan more than the contract stated, which is why I decided to work for them," a student surnamed Fu told METRO.
Fu said 25 students in his team were asked to leave yesterday, after the number of visitors fell well below expectations.
"We waited hours to see if we could get the extra 420 yuan for the seven days of work, but left when the police turned up," Fu said.
The negative feeling was echoed by a second student, who asked not to be named.
"They didn't tell me to leave. If I quit before my contract ends, I get nothing. Worse than that, I actually have to give 2,000 yuan in compensation," he said, while holding up his contract.
Both students said they had been convinced the company was honest because the carnival was supported by the local government.