Campus new recruits recount the inside story of Xingyu Co., Ltd.'s contract termination, and the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau has issued an exclusive response.
Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems (601799.SH), a leading domestic automotive lighting manufacturer, has been caught in a public opinion storm after it collectively persuaded more than 100 fresh graduate recruits to resign.
On August 25, the Changzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau released a special investigation notice, confirming that Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems has negotiated the termination of labor contracts with a total of 107 fresh graduates of the 2026 cohort. The bureau determined that the company's personnel communication methods were rigid and its employment management was improper, ordered the company to issue a public apology, and suspended the involved human resources director for rectification.
On August 27, Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems released a public apology letter, disclosing the resettlement plan for the 107 involved fresh graduates, including the immediate payment of 3 months of job-hunting living subsidies; if the students fail to secure employment with a formal employer by the end of November this year, they will be given 6 months of salary as compensation. In addition, the company will continue to provide free accommodation for students still staying in the company dormitory, connect with external enterprise resources to recommend suitable positions, and organize them to participate in special job fairs held by human resources and social security departments.
On August 27, relevant staff from the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Xinbei District, Changzhou, who was in charge of the investigation into Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems' personnel controversy, said in an interview with Time Finance: "For the currently employed graduate recruits, some are interning in department positions and some are interning in production positions according to their labor contracts, internship and training plans. Those interning in production positions will return to their department positions after the internship ends on September 15. If the enterprise wants to adjust their positions, mutual negotiation and consent are required, and no unilateral forced position adjustment is allowed."
The staff further introduced that the local human resources and social security departments will carry out on-site visits and employment risk investigations for key enterprises in their jurisdiction later, and establish a dynamic employment risk monitoring ledger for key enterprises that absorb a large number of college graduates. For cases of mass layoffs of more than 20 people at one time, the human resources and social security department will intervene immediately to provide employment guidance and maintain stable employment order.
The total three-month subsidy amounts to 15,000 yuan. Source: Provided by the interviewee
A fresh graduate recruit named Zhang Ming (pseudonym) who terminated the labor contract with Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems confirmed to Time Finance that including himself, many fresh graduate recruits had received the 3-month subsidy totaling 15,000 yuan on the morning of August 27. However, Zhang Ming said: "After paying social insurance, I will no longer have the identity of a fresh graduate, which will make me miss the corresponding preferential treatment. At the same time, the lack of practical project experience will also make subsequent job hunting more difficult."
According to the on-site recording of the negotiation meeting held by Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems with the fresh graduates in early August provided by Zhang Ming to Time Finance, internal personnel of Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems mentioned that the company's orders from original equipment manufacturers plummeted sharply at the end of July, which was the direct cause of this personnel adjustment.
Employee compensation payable in the first half of 2026. Source: Screenshot of 2026 semi-annual report
The real situation of Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems can be glimpsed in the newly disclosed financial report. On the evening of August 26, Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems released its 2026 semi-annual report. In the second quarter of this year, the company achieved operating revenue of about 3.454 billion yuan, which was basically the same as that of the first quarter, but the attributable net profit declined to 314 million yuan, down about 18% year-on-year and about 11% quarter-on-quarter.
In addition, as of the end of June 2026, the company's employee compensation payable was about 90.2386 million yuan, accounting for 0.49% of total assets, down 45.90% from the end of 2025; this figure was 167 million yuan at the end of 2025, accounting for 0.86% of total assets.
Time Finance repeatedly called and sent letters to Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems regarding the controversy over the termination of contracts with fresh graduates and the company's operating conditions, and no response had been obtained as of press time.
The controversy over contract termination escalates
This large-scale personnel adjustment for fresh graduates took place only one month after this batch of graduates joined the company.
At the end of March this year, through the spring campus recruitment, Zhang Ming, an undergraduate from a non-double first-class university in Chongqing, received an offer from Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems. In early July, he signed a labor contract with the company, with the position of electronic project engineer and a salary of about 7,000 yuan. According to the agreement, he needed to complete a one-month internship as an operator in the workshop.
One month after joining the company, on August 8, Zhang Ming received a personnel interview. He told Time Finance that among the 440 newly recruited campus graduates in this batch, more than 300 were collectively interviewed on August 8. "The personnel department gave two options: sign the voluntary resignation agreement for personal reasons, and you can get full on-the-job salary plus half a month's salary compensation; if you refuse to resign, the original technical position will be invalidated, and you will be uniformly transferred to the assembly line in the workshop to engage in basic operations, the original one-month internship will be directly extended to more than 3 months, and subsequent position confirmation and promotion will all be pending."
Regarding the reason for this large-scale personnel adjustment of Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems, according to the interview recordings and communication records provided by Zhang Ming to Time Finance, the company's HR mentioned in the conversation that "the company has recently encountered adjustments in operation, market projects are less than expected, and job headcounts are reduced".
According to further disclosure from Zhang Ming to Time Finance, the actual number of people who left the company is higher than the 107 in the official notice. Among the 440-person campus recruitment team, there are no more than 160 on-the-job personnel after the controversy. According to the factory internship record form provided by Zhang Ming, the number of on-the-job student interns in the factory from August 10 to August 28 was 121, "and more than 30 people had a second round of interviews with the company on August 10".
In response to the difference in the statistical caliber of the number of people who left the company, the aforementioned staff from the human resources and social security bureau explained to Time Finance: "These 107 people are only the campus recruits who negotiated to leave Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems during the post adjustment coordination stage, and do not include those who left before this stage and those who left after the negotiation work was completed."
Statistics of the number of campus recruits in the internship factory from August 10 to August 28. Source: Provided by the interviewee
On August 10, because no consensus could be reached on the plan, Zhang Ming and more than 30 other students participated in the second interview. Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems put forward a compromise plan that the engineer position could be retained, but the workshop internship period would be extended from 1 month to 3 months. On August 11, Zhang Ming terminated the labor contract with Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems.
At the same time, Zhang Ming confessed to Time Finance: "The Changzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau never contacted me during the investigation, and dozens of my classmates I know at the same time did not receive any investigation calls or text messages from the human resources and social security bureau." In response, the aforementioned staff from the human resources and social security bureau revealed to Time Finance: "Restricted by objective factors such as some resigned campus recruits having left Changzhou, during the investigation stage, we conducted on-site inquiries and verifications for some resigned fresh graduates, and some through telephone inquiries."
Looking back at the source of this incident, Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems recruited 440 fresh graduates of the 2026 cohort in a centralized manner during the autumn campus recruitment of 2025 and the spring campus recruitment of 2026. The positions were mainly R&D, technical, and reserve management trainees, dominated by master's and doctoral groups, who were positioned as core reserve personnel for intelligent automotive lighting and high-end automotive lighting R&D businesses. The recruitment presentations and public materials clearly promised that fresh graduates would only have a short-term production line rotation experience, and they could return to their signed technical positions for formal appointment after the rotation. The assembly line was only an auxiliary training link and would not be used as a long-term job position.
The notice from the Changzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau shows that after the incident, the local government launched special employment assistance. As of August 25, 22 of the involved graduates had found re-employment, 14 had entered enterprise interviews, and the rest were continuously followed up for fallback assistance.
However, Zhang Ming told Time Finance that he had not yet received the employment assistance notice from the Changzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, "The employment recommendation positions provided by Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems are only limited to Changzhou, and the salary and benefits are significantly lower than those of the original positions."
The aforementioned staff from the human resources and social security bureau told Time Finance: "The human resources and social security department contacted each of the involved resigned campus recruits via text message to find out their personal job hunting intentions, and pushed targeted position information. The local government relies on the municipal and district-level human resources markets to hold special job fairs every week to continuously provide employment assistance for graduates. As of August 26, among the 107 campus recruits who negotiated to leave the company, 30 had found employment, 15 were in the interview stage, and the remaining 62 were still receiving position recommendation and docking. A job fair will also be held on the afternoon of August 28, and we will continue to provide employment support for graduates with job hunting needs in the future."
In fact, a former employee of Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems who requested anonymity told Time Finance that the company had already experienced large-scale employee turnover in the past, with an obvious trend of shrinking formal headcounts and a sharp increase in the scale of outsourced labor.
Number of employees of Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems as of the end of 2025. Source: Screenshot of Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems' 2025 annual report
Time Finance sorted out the financial reports and found that as of the end of 2025, the number of formal employees of Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems was 7,532, compared with 10,426 at the end of 2024. Correspondingly, in 2025, the total number of outsourced labor hours was about 10.87 million hours, and the outsourced labor remuneration was about 302 million yuan; in 2024, these two figures were about 8.638 million hours and 244 million yuan respectively.
Trapped in operating crisis: weak order growth and plummeting profits
This large-scale revocation of campus recruitment positions is the direct result of the concentrated manifestation of Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems' operating pressure in the past month.
Zhang Ming revealed to Time Finance that senior executives of Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems and employees from other departments would also go to the workshop for rotation. According to the on-site recording of the aforementioned negotiation meeting, relevant personnel of Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems said when asked about the reason for personnel adjustment: "We also received the notice at the end of July that the orders given to us by the original equipment manufacturers suddenly plummeted." The recording also mentioned that under this round of business contraction, old employees were also affected.
The 2026 semi-annual report shows that although Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems took on 59 vehicle lighting R&D projects and completed mass production of 46 vehicle models in the first half of 2026, its profitability weakened year-on-year due to multiple factors such as weak domestic demand in the domestic passenger vehicle market, lower-than-expected sales of supporting vehicle models, and the rise in prices of some raw materials.
Performance data of Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems in the first half of 2026. Source: Screenshot of 2026 semi-annual report
In the first half of 2026, Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems achieved operating revenue of about 6.884 billion yuan, a slight year-on-year increase of 1.87%; the attributable net profit was about 669 million yuan, a year-on-year decline of 5.26%. The company's comprehensive gross profit margin was 18.76%, down 0.51 percentage points from 19.27% in the same period of 2025.
Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems pointed out in its semi-annual report that in the first half of 2026, the domestic demand of China's automotive industry was under obvious pressure, exports increased significantly, and the passenger vehicle market performed poorly; the conversion of new and old driving forces continued, and new energy vehicles maintained steady growth.
The financial report shows that in the first half of 2026, China's automobile production and sales reached 14.493 million units and 15.017 million units respectively, down 4% and 4.1% year-on-year; of which domestic sales were 9.921 million units, down 21.1% year-on-year, and exports were 5.096 million units, up 65.3% year-on-year.
Specifically, in the first half of 2026, the production and sales of passenger vehicles reached 12.721 million units and 12.72 million units respectively, down 5.9% and 6% year-on-year. Among them, the domestic sales of passenger vehicles were 8.288 million units, down 24.3% year-on-year. The production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 7.438 million units and 7.446 million units respectively, up 6.7% and 7.3% year-on-year.
In terms of cash flow and assets, as of the end of June 2026, the net cash flow from operating activities of Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems was 991 million yuan, down 17.3% year-on-year; monetary funds were about 2.738 billion yuan, and transactional financial assets were about 909 million yuan, the two totaling 3.647 billion yuan; total assets were about 18.597 billion yuan, down 3.87% year-on-year