She received some flowers. Then a rather threatening message. But she still did not go out with her boss’ son. Then she was fired for “not adapting to the company’s culture”. It’s the unfair-dismissal case today gathering the headlines across eastern China.
The lady in question was working as a clerk in a jewellery firm in Taicang, the county-level city under the jurisdiction of Suzhou City in our very own Jiangsu Province.
On 4 August, the lady received a gift of some flowers from her boss. His reason? It was the seventh day of the seventh lunisolar month; Qixi Festival.
But it had been a ruse. The gift was followed by a WeChat conversation, in which he asked the lady to be his son’s girlfriend. She declined.
A later exchange between the two, a screenshot of which accompanies this article, went thus:
Boss: “Didn’t I say I introduced my son to you?”
Clerk: “I’d still rather not; it would affect work.”
Boss: “If you don’t want to, you won’t have a job. I just want to introduce you to my son before I talk about work.”
Shortly after, the lady was called into her HR department to be told that she had not adapted to company culture. She was then asked to sign her own resignation.
That was enough for the Taicang Human Resources and Social Security Bureau to get involved. Yesterday, 11 August, staff at the Bureau responded to reporters that the matter was being understood and appropriately handled.
Article 39 of China’s Labour Contract Law (2007) states that, “The employing unit may have the labour contract revoked if a worker is found in any of the following circumstances: (1) being proved unqualified for recruitment during the probation period; (2) seriously violating the rules and regulations of the employing unit; (3) causing major losses to the employing unit due to serious dereliction of duty or engagement in malpractices for personal gain; (4) concurrently establishing a labour relationship with another employing unit, which seriously affects the accomplishment of the task of the original employing unit, or refusing to rectify after the original employing unit brings the matter to his[/her] attention; (5) invalidating the labour contract as a result of the circumstance specified in Subparagraph (1) of the first paragraph of Article 26 of this Law; or (6) being investigated for criminal responsibility in accordance with law”.
According to Chai Xin, a lawyer with Dacheng Law Offices in Wuhan, it is otherwise an illegal dismissal and double economic compensation would be due to be paid to the employee.
In this case, an employee was coerced into talking with the company leader’s son against her wishes and was maliciously dismissed after the employee rejected him. Away from any other impropriety, it’s now 2022’s most notorious unfair-dismissal case.
