Having been promised they will be paid the two months arrears in salary they are owed, more than 40 cleaning staff in Jian Wai SOHO in Chaoyang district restarted work on Wednesday after a two-day strike.
"They haven't paid us any salary for two months," said Yang Na, a cleaner who has worked at Jian Wai SOHO since March. "My monthly pay is 1,000 yuan and now I have no money to live on."
"Starting Tuesday night, we were cleaning the building from noon to 10 pm because they promised to pay our salary for the last two months before Friday. If they don't, we will strike again or complain to the higher authorities," she said.
Despite the "No Smoking" sign on the wall, many cigarette ends can be found on the floor and litter is scattered about.
"The environment is already better today, but we still cannot stand the bathroom. It is too dirty inside and there is no toilet paper," said Joanna He, a female worker in the building, "They haven't cleaned the bathroom for at least a week."
Wang Fei, a white-collar worker on the first floor in Building A of Jian Wai SOHO said: "The bathroom on the first floor still cannot be used at present and the elevator is under repair.
"There are many people working here, so the conditions are not at all satisfactory. It greatly affects my mood at work," he said.
The strike prompted the property management committee to agree to pay about 100,000 yuan to ensure the daily cleaning operations until a new property management company is selected, Beijing News reported on Wednesday.
Zhang Mingwei, a proprietor representative, said they contacted Pan Shiyi, chairman of SOHO China, after the strike and Pan managed to send 80 volunteers to do the cleaning for several days.
Liu Chang, a real estate salesman working at Jian Wai SOHO, said the overall environment of the buildings in JianWai SOHO area has deteriorated since the beginning of this year and it has become even worse in the last week.
"I hope the new property management company can change it soon," he said.
