OPPO Significantly Reduces Employees’ Year-End Bonus

Chinese smartphone company OPPO was recently reported that it will withdraw from the UK and German markets in Europe. The company responded by saying that it will continue to focus on the European market, but this time it is only adjusting its focus on market investment direction. However, besides withdrawing from the British and German markets, OPPO is also undergoing “dynamic optimization” in China according to a report by Chinese media outlet New Consumer Daily on April 3.

Several former OPPO employees told New Consumer Daily that many OPPO employees in China have been asked to switch their salary payment method to floating salaries and their year-end bonuses have been reduced significantly.

A former OPPO employee said in the report: “Our year-end bonuses are only one-third or half of what they used to be. The adjustment range is determined by management, and only HR knows who will be affected.”

SEE ALSO: OPPO Plans to Withdraw Smartphones Business from Germany and UK

Prior to joining OPPO, employees were given the option of two salary payment methods: “fixed” and “floating.” Fixed salary contracts entail a predetermined monthly wage and year-end bonus that are not influenced by company performance. Typically, the year-end bonus is relatively small while the monthly wage is higher. Conversely, floating salary contracts involve lower monthly wages but higher year-end bonuses that are contingent on company performance.

“In fact,” another former employee told New Consumer Daily,” both salary schemes are fine; they’re just different choices.” Most veteran employees at OPPO actually preferred the floating salary scheme before the COVID-19 pandemic while those who did not want long-term constraints tended towards fixed salaries to avoid being influenced heavily by high-percentage year-end bonuses.”

“The problem lies in OPPO allegedly forcing employees who chose fixed-salary plans into switching over to floating ones instead,” the aforementioned employee added. After that, some employees found out that their salaries no longer matched what was agreed upon in their contracts.

Another former OPPO HR employee said, “There is no such thing as a fixed salary now. It’s all floating salaries.” The first employee mentioned earlier also added: “A batch of employees had already been laid off. The company has been ‘dynamically optimizing’ for half a year since last year.”

It is worth noting that “optimization and adjustment” have become the theme of China’s mainstream smartphone makers recently. In addition to OPPO, it was reported that vivo’s independent sub-brand iQOO will further integrate with vivo. Realme’s product line is also shrinking.

Previously, iQOO and vivo shared R&D, supply chain, and sales channels, but in terms of product planning, user operations, sales strategies, and marketing activities., iQOO was completely independent from vivo.

A report by 36Kr also shows that a vivo insider said that senior management had discussed merging brands and media strategies. It is uncertain whether iQOO will retain its separate business stores or independent stores.