THE company led by a scrap paper merchant who topped China's rich list in 2006 had violated workers' legal rights and interests and used penalties too much, the local trade union said Saturday.

There were management problems in the Nine Dragons Paper (Holding) Ltd., owned by Zhang Yin, said Kong Xianghong, vice chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Trade Unions Federation.

Kong's remarks followed the publication of a report by Hong Kong student organizations revealing "misbehavior" in five Hong Kong-listed companies, including Nine Dragons Paper.

Kong said the trade union had dispatched six investigators to conduct a sample survey among 100 workers at Nine Dragons Paper concerning issues of welfare, work accidents, unreasonable penalties and job satisfaction.

According to feedback, the welfare policies were relatively satisfactory but there were problems of violating workers' legal rights and interests and excessive use of penalties by the company, Kong said.

(Xinhua)