July 21, 2005

Heat forces workers on vacation to cut power use

Workers’ salaries won’t be cut, but six day work-week coming

BEIJING

Workers at thousands of Beijing companies are getting an unscheduled vacation thanks to the scorching summer heat.

Beginning this week, 4,689 businesses took mandatory weeklong breaks on rotation to cut down on energy use in the Chinese capital and avoid pushing up already rapidly climbing power prices, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

About 280,000 kilowatts will be saved every day because of the summer shutdowns and thanks to other measures such as scheduled power shutdowns and minimized consumption at peak hours, Xinhua said, citing Beijing Electric Power Corp.

Employees won’t have their salaries reduced or cut but will have to work six-day instead of five-day weeks from September to make up for lost production time, Xinhua said, citing the Beijing municipal government.

With temperatures frequently topping 40 degrees Celsius since mid-June, energy demand in the capital has been pushed to dangerous highs as residents turn up their air conditioners, competing with power demand from booming industries.

On July 6, Beijing consumed more than 10 million kilowatts of energy for the first time, Xinhua said.

The summer heat already prompted government leaders to ask Beijing’s civil servants to adopt a more casual dress style by leaving ties and suits at home. The report did not specify which industries or companies would be shutting down but said they were “seasonal.”

Local governments across China have been told to charge different prices for electricity at different hours of the day to ease the power crisis.

Associated Press

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