A Chinese company has been placed under official investigation after it gave consumer vouchers instead of money as salary to its employees, triggering online backlash.

A person from northeastern China's Jilin province posted that the shopping centre he worked for, Motian Vitality City, gave its staff consumer vouchers as their salary.

Photos posted by the man on a social media platform showed the vouchers with values ranging from 10 to 500 yuan (US$1.4 to US$70).

The man said that other entities owned by the same parent company Dazhong Zhuoyue Holding Group, including real estate, property management and taxi companies, also gave the same vouchers to their employees.

An instruction from the company indicated that the vouchers can be used to pay property management fees, buy certain properties and parking space owned by the group at a discount price, and goods at another Motian Vitality City mall in their city until the end of this year.

A member of staff with the mall told media outlet Chinese Business View that the vouchers could only be used with some shops, mostly restaurants and clothing stores, and they do not give change if the bought item is less than the value of the voucher.

"Many colleagues have mortgages and car loans, and young kids and old parents to support. We are helpless with these vouchers," the poster said.

The company's behaviour sparked outrage on social media.

"Since when can a company issue their own currency? They should be severely punished," one person said.

To read the complete article, see:
'Issue own currency': China firm probed for paying staff consumer vouchers instead of money(https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3294022/issue-own-currency-china-firm-probed-paying-staff-consumer-vouchers-instead-money)