Chapter 281 - Shu Yan saw her ran out and retched around the corner. (2)
“Let me give you another good news. I was able to secure the piece of land next to the logistic center. In addition, I was able to win Lot 9 in the auction.”
Shu Yan pulled out the map quickly. Lot 9 was one of the locations that Hu Ruixue had circled previously but it was also a location that would shoot up in value in the future. Knowing that, Shu Yan couldn’t stop praising Hu Ruixue for her accomplishment.
“Why did you buy so much at one time? Are you sure we will be able to secure the loans?” Looking at Lot 9 that would be turned into tall buildings in the future, Shu Yan wonder what kind of compensation they would receive from the government.
“You don’t need to worry about that. How many domestic enterprises have 500 franchises? I didn’t even need to show up in person. We got the approvals as soon as we have submitted all the information. I plan to put a garment factory on Lot 9. We would wait on that for now. The area next to the logistic center can commence right away. I plan to be more comprehensive this time.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I plan to place all of Xianxue’s line of products over here. We will divide the factory up into four areas and all of them will share the same storage. The first one will be responsible for fall underwear, second one casual household wear, third one regular underwear, and the fourth one socks. Then there will be cafeteria, dormitories, day care, etc. I also plan on saving some of the land for welfare housing. We are not government-ran but we can provide equal benefits. Employees who had contributed a significant amount to our factories will be rewarded with a house.”
“This is zone to be industrial area, no?” They could build houses in industrial areas?
“It is industrial area but, it will be fine if I put in the application to build welfare housing. In fact, the government will be fairly supportive of it.”
The reason that Hu Ruixue was able to win these two lots so smoothly was partly because of their growth enterprise but also that she had accepted a group of the female factory workers that had been working in garment factories and also workers retired from other units. That had relieved some of the government’s pressure on placing these individuals. If they were to apply for welfare housing right now, they would certainly become the model of private businesses and might even earn the Best Enterprise award.
Shu Yan was aware of the workers that they had adopted. Hu Ruixue had mentioned it to her in the past. Hu Ruixue had further analyzed the pros and cons with her at the time but their reward from that had far exceeded Shu Yan’s expectation.
Truth was, not very many private enterprises were willing to take on these old workers from government enterprises. These workers would not work as hard as those they could hire on elsewhere and they had attitude issues. They love to go on strike and protest frequently and, if they were fired, they had no problem protesting to the government.
When Shu Yan agreed to take them on, her request was that their company would retain the right to fire these employees. At the end of the negotiation, they had agreed upon 10% being the maximum number of employees that they could let go. Never over 10%.
Back in the government-ran businesses, nobody would ever get fired unless they had made a serious mistake. Now that they could be fired, Shu Yan trusted that these sleazebags would behave themselves some.
Many of them behaved the same way as they had in the past when the first started. They’d talk down on capitalism to other workers. Hu Ruixue’s solution was to make an example out of a few of them. Some of these others still wanted to put up a fight but Hu Ruixue said to them point blank that if they were to keep it up, she’d rather breach the contract than retaining everyone.
That did the trick in deterring those individuals. They had no work for over half a year already. If they didn’t have work soon, they would start having difficult times in putting food on table.
After firing some 20 individuals at one go, that had finally suppressed the others. One must use the stick and the carrots together wisely. Hu Ruixue gave everyone a month’s salary in advance for them to settle up at home. In addition, she told everyone that their factories, unlike the government-ran ones, offered commissions on every single garment that they produced. The more they produced, the more they’d make. And outstanding employees would receive bonuses in addition to that. When all was said and done, they would be making in excess of doubling their previous income.
All resentment was gone immediately and all of the old workers settled in to work at their factories. They were all experienced workers at garment factories and they picked up their work quickly. Both Shu Yan and Hu Ruixue were fairly happy about that.