Executives of China's top Internet search company Baidu Inc talked this weekend with striking workers who are angry about salary cuts and new sales commission policies that they say could force them out of their jobs, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

Hundreds of Baidu employees in southern China have either stayed home or gone to the office and refused to work since May 4, the Journal reported.

On Friday, several hundred employees at the Shenzhen office marched to their local labor bureau to file a complaint against the company, according to strikers and officials in the labor bureau, the Journal reported.

In the nearby city of Guangzhou, the labor bureau said it had received complaints from scores of employees, the Journal also reported.

Several striking workers spoke anonymously to the Journal, saying that Baidu cut sales agents' base salaries by about 30 percent from 4,000 yuan ($590). One worker said Baidu wants us to feel uncomfortable and choose to leave the company voluntarily, the Journal reported.

It said Baidu also raised sales targets and threatened to withhold commissions and dismiss sales agents who failed to meet them. The employees want Baidu to cancel the policies and fire the regional executives who introduced them, the Journal said.

Employees said they believe the measures apply only to staff in the company's southern offices, the Journal reported.

Baidu surpassed Wall Street's first-quarter profit expectations when it reported results in late April, but it is dealing with slowing advertising sales and a decision to stop listing ads for unlicensed medical companies.

Baidu is China's top Internet search company, beating out competitors Google Inc and Yahoo . Both those companies still outrank Baidu worldwide, however.

Baidu officials were not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Robert MacMillan; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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