Groupon's Chinese JV lays off local workers

THE layoff dispute of a group buying website ended peacefully this morning after about 60 people went to negotiate compensation with the company. Each of laid-off employees in Shanghai will get two months' salary as compensation plus their wages for August, the workers said. Gaopeng, a joint-venture between Tencent and Groupon Inc, told one third of its 300-plus workers in Shanghai that they had lost their jobs on Thursday and Friday without a prior notice and their compensation varied from five days' to two weeks' pay. A representative of the laid-off workers said they all accepted the current compensation scheme and were satisfied with the negotiation process. "The management officials behaved politely today and we are glad that the disputes have been solved," he said. Groupon, the world's largest group-buying website, launched its joint venture in China in February and opened its Shanghai office in March. It has not explained the reasons for the large-scale layoff as its other 18 offices in China are also cutting the headcount this month.

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