2010-06-08 19:43

SHENYANG - Representatives of US fast food chain KFC have agreed to raise workers' wages as demanded by a Chinese trade union in northeastern Liaoning province.

Feng Hui, head of the Shenyang Municipal Trade Union for Services Industries, said Tuesday the Yum! Brands Inc China Division's branch in Shenyang had accepted the two basic points in the wage negotiations between the company and the union.

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She said the company with 2,000 employees on its payroll has agreed to set a minimum wage at 900 yuan ($131.7) a month instead of the previously offered 700 yuan, and maintain an annual pay raise of 5 percent.

"We have hired legal experts to help put the wage promises into explicit clauses and see the promises are implemented in the next stage of talks with KFC over its collective labor contract," said Ju Xiuli, chairman of the Shenyang Municipal Trade Union.

Ju said the union aimed to ensure each Chinese service workers at the fast food chain benefited from the contract, rather than a few managing executives in the company.

Yum! Brands Inc in Shenyang, which manages 57 KFC outlets and 11 Pizza Hut restaurants, submitted a draft labor contract to the union on February 12. But the union regarded that draft as "favorable to the company and unfair to its employees," and urged the company to raise the workers' pay.

"It is a shame the world's largest restaurant company insists of the city's minimum wage level of 700 yuan," said Feng, the union official.