A Chinese company plans to demand its employees seek approval to get pregnant and fine those who conceive a child without permission, provoking a media firestorm.
Workers at a finance firm in Henan province were said to have been told they must apply for a "place on the birth-planning schedule" - and only if they had been employed for over a year.
"Only married female workers who have worked for the company for more than one year can apply for a place on the birth planning schedule," read a policy distributed by a credit cooperative in Jiaozuo.
"The employee must strictly stick to the birth plan once it is approved," it added. "Those who get pregnant in violation of the plan such that their work is affected will be fined 1,000 yuan (£100)," it said.
