Didi Slashes Employees’ Bonuses in Half Following Poor Company Performance

Employees of Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi will receive only half of their year-end bonuses, while executives receive nothing, the company’s CEO Cheng Wei announced at an internal meeting on Saturday, The Paper reports.

The bonus cuts come as a result of the company’s less-than-satisfactory performance over the course of the year, The Paper cites Cheng as saying, adding that most of the blame is held by its executives. The company’s annual bonuses can vary between two and six months salary, depending on an employees performance.

A Didi representative refused to comment on the matter when contacted by TechNode.

“Everybody is frustrated,” a company employee told The Paper. “We used to work overtime for a bonus. After the decision was made, we just didn’t care about [appraisals anymore].”

Didi has faced government and public scrutiny following high profile safety incidents on its platform.

Last week, a former Didi driver was sentenced to death for murdering a passenger in Shenzhen in 2016. The company refused to comment on the ruling.

Earlier this year, two female passengers in their 20s were allegedly raped and killed by Didi drivers while using the platform’s carpooling service, Hitch. The murders occurred in the capital of China’s central Henan province, Zhengzhou, and Wenzhou, a coastal city in the southeastern province of Zhejiang.

The murders led to users boycotting the service while the company temporarily shut down seven late night services for a week while its implemented new safety measures. The company’s app fell 53 places in the Chinese Apple App Store in the course of a week.

In September an inspection team consisting of 10 national ministries and commissions began an investigation at the company’s headquarters. The investigation found that there were “serious safety hazards” in its Hitch business. The service was suspended indefinitely.

Earlier this month, the company announced a reorganization plan for improving passenger safety on its platform. The company merged its car-hailing services into a single business unit to promote compliance, while appointing two new executives, including a chief safety officer and chief security officer, to oversee its emergency management.

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Photo: Courtesy of Technode