These images show a man pouring reportedly icy water over his mainly female workers’ heads to punish them after they apparently missed their sales targets.

The incident reportedly took place in the city of Yichang, which is located in Hubei Province, in central China, on Monday, 28th February.

In the footage, a man standing on a chair with his shirt open is handed buckets of water that he then proceeds to pour over the heads of the sales workers, which include both men and women, although more women than men appear to be being punished.

The exercise appears to be a rather chilly one as some of the workers can be seen wearing winter clothing.

One woman even has a winter coat on with her hood up but the man on the chair yanks it down and pours the cold water on her regardless.

It is hard to read the expressions on some of the worker’s faces who were wearing facemasks, so it is unclear if they were even pretending to enjoy themselves as they dutifully queue up one behind the other to receive their punishment.

But laughter can be heard ringing out in the footage, which might be just light-hearted fun more than a serious reprimand.

Many netizens reportedly said on Chinese social media that they would rather quit such a job than be so insulted, finding the punishment excessive, but others said they found the footage funny.

It is currently unclear what kind of business the sales employees work for and what products the business sells.

Local media reported that most of the people being punished in the footage were women. While a healthy mix of both men and women appear to be queueing up, some women jump the queue.

AsiaWire counted four women and one man having water poured over their heads. No names were reported.