A footwear company in Luoyang, Henan province, is allegedly to force its employees to purchase the company’s shoes as part of their year-end bonus, fjsen.com reported on Jan 23.

“I was told that everyone in the company has to purchase one pair of shoes for 160 yuan ($25.7) or 2 for 140 yuan, and the money will be directly deducted from our year-end bonus. What makes it more ridiculous is we can’t even choose the pattern and size,.” said an employee surnamed Wu.

“The year-end bonus we usually get is merely some 1,000 yuan. How could it be enough for us to celebrate Chinese New Year with it?” said Wu.

The assistant manager of the company surnamed Huang defended the company’s decision, saying: “They are all good-quality products. The price tag is around 2,000 yuan while we only sell to our employees for 160 yuan. ”

“So they actually have obtained a bigger year-end bonus than they did last year,” Huang added. “It is actually against the law to make such compulsory sales to its own employees. All salaries and bonuses should be issued in cash, ” said Ge Ning, legal adviser of fjsen.com.