Chinese retail chain faces rare backlash for limiting new hires to 4-year contracts

Retail tycoon Yu Donglai, widely known as China’s “most conscientious” boss, recently triggered public controversy with a proposal to sign only a four-year “training initiative” contract with future new hires, without renewing it.

Yu has been nationally acclaimed for the many unconventionally humanistic rules he set up for Pangdonglai, a supermarket chain he founded in central China’s Henan province in 1995.

Yu, for example, once said his 8,000 employees’ after-tax monthly salaries average 9,000 yuan (US$1,350), higher than the province’s average. The company offers 30 days of paid leave plus 10 days of paid “unhappy leave” for those feeling emotionally unwell.