Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Corp yesterday said it would give employees sent to China a wage premium to compensate for the country’s hazardous air pollution, in a possible first for an international company.
The move was part of a wider deal reached in Japan’s annual labor talks which saw major firms, including Panasonic and Toyota Motor Co, agree to boost workers’ salaries for the first time in years, amid concerns about an economic slowdown after a sales tax increase next month.
A Panasonic spokesman confirmed the pollution-linked pay premium for its expatriate workers, but declined to give further details or say how many such workers it has in China, which has extensive trade and business links with Japan.
So-called hardship pay is not unusual for employees of foreign firms sent to work to China, but Panasonic is believed to be the first to announce a premium to compensate for polluted air.
A Panasonic document from the labor talks said: “As for the premium for expatriates to compensate for a different living environment, the company will have a special review for those sent to Chinese cities.”
On the weekend, a top Chinese environment official said that air quality was below national standards in almost all major cities last year, after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) pledged to “declare war” on pollution.
Only three out of the 74 cities monitored by the government met a new air quality standard, Chinese Vice Minister of Environmental Protection Wu Xiaoqing (吳曉青) said, underscoring a problem that has set off alarm bells over health concerns.
The Panasonic document referenced so-called PM2.5 — small particles which easily penetrate the lungs and have been linked to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths.
The standard lists limits on a string of pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and airborne particles. Levels of PM2.5 have repeatedly reached more than 400 micrograms per cubic meter, according to a count by the US embassy in Beijing, more than 16 times the WHO’s safety guideline of 25 micrograms.
Chinese cities are regularly cloaked in a smoggy haze, with many residents donning masks to avoid taking in the toxic air.
The public have been increasingly angered by the severe environmental consequences of the country’s rapid industrialization, among them smog, land laden with heavy metals and chemically contaminated waterways.
China’s heavy and chemical industries, its reliance on coal as its main energy source, rapidly growing car emissions and widespread urban construction have all been blamed for exacerbating the problem. Chinese authorities have repeatedly pledged action in recent months, but experts warn that implementation will be key.
The government plans to shut down 50,000 small coal-fired furnaces this year, clean up major coal-burning power plants and remove 6 million high-emission vehicles from the roads, Li said recently.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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