Business Communication Memo

To: xxx, Manager of abc Clothing Corporation Beijing Branch.

From: xxx, Intern at Financial Department.

Date: 24th October 24, 2016.

Subject: Modifying policies regarding working overtime

Dear xxx,

Problem

Setting overtime working control rules like requiring employees get permission first from supervisor to work overtime doesn’t mean company is free from paying overtime wages if employee don’t have permission. abc Clothing Corporation(abc) used to require employees to get approvals for working overtime before they do so to control labor budget tightly. Also, company used to make agreements with employees to offer them lower-than-standards wages for extra hours over forty in a week, otherwise company prohibit workers to work overtime. Many workers in the factory volunteer to work extra hours out of schedule to earn more money, and many of them do so without permission. Although employees signed overtime working control waivers mentioned above, the law of labor overrule company’s inner policy. Federal law made clear that company need to pay employee for the all the time worked regardless of whether those agreements exist. Under this situation, some employee may take advantage of it and file lawsuits against abc. And the company end up paying accrued wages also penalties. Additionally, there are groups of people targeting expanding company with limited legal experience to earn compensation money from lawsuits in China.

Background

There is a need to improve the professionalism in terms of legal policies, and to eliminate loopholes that ill-intentioned people can take advantage of. The modified 2015 Labor Law in China said that company cannot force employee to work overtime, cannot make them work overtime for more than thirty-six hours a month, and must pay non-exempt employees at least one and half of their current wages. United States has relatively the same regulations to protect employees.

Small manufacturing business like abc increases income by production expanding, which at the same time increases cost. abc was founded in 2003 and has its own production factory, retail stores (twenty-three stores), and wholesale stores in China. Developing companies like abc focused too much on how to expand its scale or reduce overall cost, and overlooked potential issues that can cause penalty. Reason being that, with company rules regarding overtime working permission and conditional overtime working set up, US and Chinese government still say that employees are entitled to get paid for each hour over forty a week. With the permission of this research proposal,