Workers at China's biggest Internet search engine postponed a two-week-long strike Monday, despite failing to reach an agreement over compensation issues, a US-based financial newspaper said. Representatives of several hundred employees of Baidu Inc ended meetings here Monday at company headquarters, giving Baidu several days to come up with a "fair response" to their grievances, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Hundreds of employees stopped working May 4 over salary cuts and new commission policies which they said were designed to force people out of their jobs, the journal said in a report carried by Dow Jones Newswires. Representatives of striking employees met with the head of human resources and an assistant to Robin Li, the company's chief executive, and agreed to postpone the strike action, it said.
Baidu, which has about triple the share of Chinese Internet search advertising of Google Inc, set new sales targets at the start of this month and said it would withhold commission from employees who do not meet them, it said. Base salaries were also reduced by about 30 percent, the journal cited workers as saying. Staff are demanding that the policies be cancelled and that the company's regional manager be fired.