Published on Nov 7, 2018 
 
 Three managers of a Chinese company in Zunyi County, Southern China, were arrested on charges of having forced employees to drink urine and eat cockroaches, according to local media reports. Source: https://china-underground.com/2018/11... 

 Three managers of a home improvement firm in southern China have been jailed after they forced staff to drink urine, eat insects and flogged them with belts because they did not meet sales targets, local media reported on Monday. 
 
 They were arrested after an employee of the company in Zunyi, Guizhou province claimed staff had been subjected to extreme punishments in a post on social media site Weibo last week. The hashtag “employees who failed to meet their goals forced to drink urine” has since been viewed almost 540,000 times. 
 
 The post included a video showing a man standing topless in the centre of a room being whipped by another man with a belt, with other people gathered around watching. It also shows people drinking cups of yellow liquid. 
 
 It was later deleted, but screenshots carried by news website Zunyi Yaowen showed text messages apparently sent by managers threatening staff with various punishments if they did not meet sales targets set by the company. 
 
 “If the sales goal has not been met by the end of this month, the team leader will have to eat three cockroaches for each failed sale,” one text message read. 
 
 Other punishments involved drinking vinegar or toilet water, selling condoms and sanitary pads on the street and having their head shaved, according to other text messages in the post. 
 
 Two of the company managers have been jailed for 10 days, while a third manager will spend five days in jail, Zunyi police said in a statement on Weibo. 
 
 Many people on social media have asked why the employees did not quit their jobs, but one staff member told Pear Video that they were owed two months’ pay by the company. The person also alleged that the company had threatened to reduce their severance pay if they quit. 
 
 As economic growth slows in China, labour unrest has been growing and reports of ill-treatment of workers have become more common. Apple, Amazon and Samsung supplier HEG Technology have all been accused of child labour, forced overtime and low wages in the past, according to New York-based China Labour Watch. 
 
 Beijing bans independent labour organising, trade unions and workers from going on strike. In August, labour activists that included students were arrested for supporting factory workers from welding machinery company Jasic International who were seeking to form a labour union after they were subjected to inhumane working conditions and later dismissed. 

 Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption If you miss your sales target, bon appétit 
 
 Managers at a Chinese firm have been jailed for making staff who failed to reach sales targets drink urine and eat cockroaches, local media report. 
 
 Police took action after videos emerged showing workers being whipped with a belt and drinking a yellow liquid. 
 
 Social media posts alleged staff were also told to eat cockroaches if they did not meet targets. 
 
 Three managers were jailed for five and 10 days over the incident, the South China Morning Post reports. 
 
 A widely-shared video posted on Chinese social media site Weibo shows a male employee standing in the middle of a circle, getting whipped with a belt. 
 
 Image copyright Pearvideo.com Image caption The video quickly went viral on Weibo 
 
 Other staff, said to be employees of the home renovation company in the city of Guizhou, can be seen drinking yellow liquid from plastic cups while holding their noses. 
 
 Screenshots of what were said to be messages from the managers threaten staff that they will have to eat cockroaches for poor performances. 
 
 According to media reports, other forms of shaming and punishment at the firm have included drinking toilet water or vinegar and getting their head shaved. 
 
 Image copyright Pearvideo.com Image caption Social media post said the yellow liquid was urine 
 
 The company had reportedly failed to pay their employees' salary for the past two months and staff was scared to speak up fearing they would lose the pay if they'd quit. 
 
 Police in Zunyi county police arrested three managers and they were later sentenced to jail time. 
 
 It's the latest in a string of cases of Chinese firms employing unusual measures to punish, shame or encourage their staff. 
 
 Previous reports have alleged cases of employees slapping each other at a company event to boost motivation, and staff forced to crawl on a public road or kiss rubbish bins as a punishment or for team building.
– Sales staff at a home renovation company in the Chinese city of Zunyi had a choice: Meet their sales targets, or face punishments including being forced to eat cockroaches and drink urine. Police investigated the company after reports and video surfaced of the cruel and bizarre punishments, the BBC reports. According to reports on social media, underperforming staff at the company were also forced to drink toilet water or vinegar, have their heads shaved, or sell condoms on the street. Video posted online shows workers being hit with a belt and drinking cups of yellow liquid. "If the sales goal has not been met by the end of this month, the team leader will have to eat three cockroaches for each failed sale," read one text message sent to employees. Police said that as a result of their investigation, two company managers were sentenced to 10 days in jail and a third to 5 days. Workers said they were afraid to quit or speak out about the abuse because the company owed them months of back pay and they feared the money would be withheld, reports the South China Morning Post. The Post notes that labor unrest and reports of ill-treatment of workers have both been rising as China's economy slows down. (Chinese citizens with "bad social credit" are also being punished.)