Restaurant invested in by writer Han Han faces suit for back pay: media report

Nice Meeting You, a restaurant brand invested in by Chinese popular writer and director Han Han, is being sued for back pay by employees, according to a report by domestic news site jiemian.com on Wednesday.

Nice Meeting You’s franchised store in Haixin Square in North China’s Tianjin has been closed since late May this year, and the store owes its 30 employees 122,800 yuan ($18,221) for May’s salary, the report said, citing an employee from the Haixin Square restaurant.

The Global Times contacted Han Han through Chinese social media outlet Sina Weibo to ask for comment, but there had been no response as of press time. The Haixin Square restaurant also could not be reached as of press time.

“Some of us sought labor arbitration first, but the arbitration center couldn’t reach our store’s general manager Song Haitao, so they couldn’t mediate,” the employee was quoted as saying in the report.

“Then we submitted our contracts, bank statements showing wages and claims to the People’s Court in Heping district in Tianjin. The case is already filed; we are waiting for the notice on when the trial will be held.”

The store’s general manager Song said he already promised the employees their wages would be paid by mid-September this year, according to the report.

“The consumption environment in China hasn’t been doing well in recent years… The store has already lost 10 million yuan,” Song said.

Its store in Xi’an, capital of Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, was closed in March 2017 for mismanagement and defaulting on a supplier’s loan.

Almost all the stores in Shaoxing, Hangzhou and Ningbo, East China’s Zhejiang Province, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, South China’s Guangdong Province, Wuhan, capital of Central China’s Hubei Province are closed.

The brand has only seven or eight stores still open across China. In 2015, which was the store’s prime time, it had more than 60 stores across the country, according to the jiemian.com report.

Its stores in two Beijing shopping malls – Chaoyang Joy City and Xidan Joy City – are still open, but the managers in those stores told the Global Times on Thursday that they know nothing about the matter, and they have no comment.