China’s Qingdao Beer Co., which caused a worldwide stir over its “urinary video,” announced on the 1st that the worker who caused the incident was detained by public security authorities and said it would strengthen supervision of the workplace.
According to Reuters, Qingdao Beer said in a statement on the same day, acknowledging that “the incident revealed a loophole in our raw material transport management.”
Qingdao Beer said, “All raw material transport vehicles will be sealed so that employees cannot contact raw materials,” adding, “Internal management has been comprehensively strengthened and measures have been taken.”
“We will strengthen manpower outsourcing management and strengthen factory monitoring by utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) motion recognition systems,” he added.
Earlier on the 19th of last month, a video was released on Chinese social media showing a man wearing a helmet and working clothes at Qingdao Plant 3 in Pingdu, Shandong Province, entering a malt storage site, which is a raw material for beer, and urinating.
The video showed him going over the shoulder-level wall, where all sides were exposed, entering a place where raw materials were piled up, looking around and urinating.
When the video was released, the Internet users were shocked and demanded severe punishment for those involved.
Earlier, Qingdao Beer said that the workers in the video were not full-time employees, but outsourcing workers, and that the excrement site was outdoors like a loading box of a malt transport vehicle, not inside the factory.
As Qingdao Beer’s stock price plunged due to urination video, the company’s market capitalization decreased by about 300 billion won for two days on the 23rd and 24th of last month.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
