He was taken to the hospital, but the doctor refused to treat him unless the company paid Rmb 8,000. The factory did not have that amount of money, and could only collect Rmb 2,000 to pay the medical fees. The doctor told the managers they were not trying hard enough - and the injured worker bled to death, over the space of four hours. The body was then dumped outside the office of the General Manager. The lesson of this story is, says Schaub, that foreign companies should check to see what the practices and procedures of Chinese SOEs are.
SOEs always have arrangements already made with hospitals in the event of an accident.
JVs, therefore, should have in place procedures for what the company should do if an employee is injured at work, and should follow the requirements of Chinese law. Regulations require the employer to inform the trade union, the People's Procurate, and a number of other organizations, and allow them to make a report, before cleaning up the site of the accident. But for many multinationals, the picture is different. BHP, for example, puts high emphasis on health and safety in its two plants located in Shanghai and Guangzhou. We have very strict safety rules.