TikTok staff in row over bonus payments

TikTok owner ByteDance is facing a row over bonuses within its ranks as employees say a payout meant to compensate them for recent stress and uncertainty has been applied unevenly.

Staff at the viral video app have lodged complaints with managers after some divisions within TikTok received extra bonuses in addition to a company-wide reward announced last month.

Employees say the app’s bosses have not been forthcoming about why some staff were later told their bonuses would be doubled, a blow to the company’s culture of transparency with staff as they are already uncertain about their future under a proposed rescue deal for TikTok’s US business.

The sensitive negotiations mean staff have little idea about the company’s plans, with less than a month to go until a Nov 12 deadline for ByteDance’s deal with Oracle to get past both the US and China.

Last month ByteDance told more than 60,000 employees that they would receive a cash bonus of half a month’s wages, as ­TikTok was dealing with the threat of bans in both the US and India, two of its largest markets.

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The following week, on Sept 18, the day that Donald Trump ordered TikTok to be banned from smartphone app stores in the US, the company doubled the bonus to a month’s salary for staff in certain TikTok divisions. In some cases employees were encouraged not to reveal their bonuses and were told about it verbally.

A TikTok spokesperson said: “We issued a company-wide bonus in September to recognise the efforts and dedication of our employees during these challenging times. As we communicated internally, bonuses totalled one half month’s salary, with a larger amount in exceptional cases. By and large feedback has been positive.”

Meanwhile, it emerged over the weekend that a former Chinese diplomat had been in charge of ByteDance’s content policies, raising questions about TikTok’s claim not to be influenced by the Chinese government.

Cai Zheng ran the company’s Beijing-based global content policy team from 2018 until the start of this year, the Financial Times reported. ByteDance said Mr Cai’s work for the government had not been considered in hiring him.