Published 17:28 IST, September 8th 2020
ByteDance to hand out cash bonuses to staff amid COVID-19 pandemic
In a letter TikTok parent company ByteDance issued to its employees, it said that it was going to help the workers in times of “changing macro environment”.
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TikTok owner ByteDance said on September 7 that it would hand out cash bonuses to employees to help them "overcome challenges” posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a letter the TikTok parent company issued to the employees, it said that it was going to help the workers in times of “changing macro environment”. A bonus amounting to half of their August base salary was announced by the company for its full-time employees between July to August, who worked for at least 26 days.
While the company has over 60,000 employees globally, it wrote a letter thanking each employee for their hard work and dedication. The company has been involved in legal battles as the US President Donald Trump threatened to ban the video making app over national security issues and gave a deadline of 15 September to sell its assets to US operations Microsoft or any other US firm. In a separate lawsuit, the Trump administration was dragged into court by the TikTok employee who argued that the ban threatens the livelihood of those employed with TikTok.
President 'impermissibly banning' business
TikTok accused the Trump administration of “furthering the president's anti-China political campaign.”It said that the US government’s actions were not based on solid evidence and facts. The video app company filed a lawsuit at the federal court in California against the Commerce Department, President Donald Trump, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that questioned the President’s “impermissibly banning" of the business and sought to overturn his executive order.
We far prefer constructive dialogue over litigation. Executive Order threatening to bring a ban on our US operations — eliminating the creation of 10,000 American jobs and irreparably harming the millions of Americans who turn to this app for entertainment, connection, and legitimate livelihoods that are vital especially during the pandemic — we simply have no choice—Tiktok wrote in a blog post.
As per the two executive orders for the ban imposed by Trump on Tiktok, the parent company ByteDance was prohibited to carry out any “US transactions”, effective September 20. The second seeks to pressurize ByteDance to sell assets within 90 days to US’ owned firm. ByteDance founder and CEO, Zhang Yiming, said in a statement earlier that the company’s employees have been working tirelessly and the cash bonuses would ease the financial pressure from employees amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
17:28 IST, September 8th 2020