HONG KONG, China — China's human resources ministry ordered a contractor for Nike Inc. and Adidas AG to rectify benefit payments to workers striking for a 10th day to demand more pay and employer contributions to social security accounts.

Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Ltd. didn’t “truthfully report” social security payments it was making for employees at its factories in the city of Dongguan, Li Zhong, a Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security spokesman, said today. Dongguan’s Social Security Department told the shoemaker to rectify the situation by today, Li said in comments posted on state-run china.com.cn. Yue Yuen said last week it would adjust its social security payment plan effective May 1, according to George Liu, a spokesman for the Hong Kong-listed company.

Employees at the Yue Yuen complex, where more than 40,000 people work, have been striking since April 14 in a dispute over social security payments, salary and benefits. The work stoppage has led Adidas to move some future production away from Yue Yuen’s Guangdong Province shoe factory in the city of Dongguan.

“The ministry is closely monitoring the development of the situation, and will guide Guangdong Province in its handling of the situation to protect the legal interests of workers,” Li said in today’s statement.

Yue Yuen shares fell 3.4 percent to HK$23.90 as of 2:02 p.m. in Hong Kong. The city’s benchmark Hang Seng Index declined 1.2 percent. Taiwan-listed parent company Pou Chen Corp. fell 7 percent, the exchange-imposed limit, to NT$36.75 in Taipei trading, the biggest drop since January 2008.

Benefit Dispute

The strike began after a worker checked the balance on his social security account and found the company had been underpaying for its contribution.

The Hong Kong-based shoemaker will “make full social security contribution in accordance with relevant laws and regulations,” Liu said today by e-mail. The plan to adjust payments was made after consultation with the relevant government authorities, according to Liu.

Adidas’s production move is meant to “minimize the impact on our operations,” Katja Schreiber, a spokeswoman for the Herzogenaurach, Germany-based sportswear maker, said by e-mail.

Greg Rossiter, a spokesman for Nike, said yesterday the Beaverton, Oregon-based sporting goods company has “closely followed the events” in Dongguan.

“Nike takes a long term approach to our sourcing decisions and has the flexibility to manage volatility,” Rossiter said in an e-mail.

Nike has plenty of flexibility in its supply chain to make up for any lost production, said Paul Swinand, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. In addition, one of the benefits of working with a vendor like Yue Yuen is that it can shift orders to other countries like Vietnam, he said.

Labor Activist Released

China’s public security bureau today released the manager of a labor support group who was detained after advising striking workers.

Zhang Zhiru, manager of the Shenzhen Chunfeng Labor Dispute Service Center, said by phone today he was released last night after being taken away April 22 from the factory by Chinese public security officials. He said he doesn’t know the whereabouts of colleague Lin Dong, who had also been questioned by officials.

Zhang and Lin met factory workers on Monday to help them pick a group of representatives of employees in Yue Yuen’s eight factories in the city.

Helping Strikers

“Up to then, the strike demands from workers had not been very uniform,” said Shenzhen, China-based Zhang, whose agency offers legal assistance to factory workers and holds training courses on collective bargaining with companies.

Zhang said he was detained after being asked to meet with Dongguan city security officials, who then asked him and Lin to sign a declaration that they wouldn’t get involved in the strike at the Yue Yuen factory. Both refused, Zhang said.

Public security officials then took away the two activists’ mobile phones and brought Zhang to a villa in the Guangzhou area of southern China, he said. They took Lin separately, Zhang said.

“I asked them when I could return home, and they said once the workers at the shoe factory return to work, I could,” said Zhang, who said he had previously helped striking International Business Machines Corp. workers. “The public security officials said they would bring me to have some fun and asked me to call my wife and say that I was on a holiday with friends,” he said. Zhang said he wasn’t mistreated.

Yue Yuen, which had 423,000 employees as of 2012, also makes shoes for brands including Puma SE, Asics Corp., New Balance, Timberland Co. and Reebok.

By Liza Lin, Dexter Roberts, with assistance from Matt Townsend and Ludi Wang; Editors: Stephanie Wong, Dave McCombs, Terje Langeland