Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei responds to HR issues after worker complaints go viral online

Ren Zhengfei, founder and chief executive of Huawei Technologies, has responded to employee complaints about the telecom giant’s working conditions aired online saying that he supports discussion of contentious issues but that this debate should be kept within the company’s internal community.

Ren’s statement comes after an internal post by an HR staff member, listing complaints such as the long working hours at Huawei among other matters, was leaked and ended up going viral on social media platforms in China such as Weibo.

“Real-name complaints are good for the company’s democratic management but staff discussion should remain internal and not disturb external society,” said Ren in an internal letter which Huawei later posted to its online community. “Everyone can fully express different opinions based on facts and evidence.”

Hu Ling, a member of the human resources team at Huawei’s elite 2012 Lab research unit, had posted a letter [later deleted] on internal platform Xinshengshequ last week that criticised some of her HR colleagues and which listed some issues that staff had complained about. It was later leaked and circulated outside the company. Huawei 2012 Laboratories is the innovation, research and technology development arm of Huawei.

Hu’s letter stated that the previous head of HR had asked for permission to lay off employees who had complained about corporate welfare issues, such as the quality of canteen and shuttle bus services.

“Average overtime work reached 57 hours every month among research people at Huawei 2012 lab … but the national labour law states that the maximum overtime per month should be 36 hours,” Hu wrote in the leaked letter. “The main task of senior employee relations specialists at Huawei seems to be to help the company exempt itself from responsibility when people burn out.”