An employee in China who was fired for repeatedly leaving work early to catch the lift has managed to win a lawsuit against his former company.
The case was highlighted on Weibo by the People’s Court of Weifang Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone, which said the man surnamed Chen had worked at a tech company in Wuhan from February 2022.
However, between September and December of that year, the company discovered that he had left work one minute early to catch the lift on a number of occasions.
Source: Freepik. Photo for illustration purposes only.
After an investigation, the company claimed that Mr Chen’s actions constituted a serious violation of the code of conduct outlined in the employee handbook, which states that employees who are late or leave early six or more times in a year would be fired.
It thus decided to terminate his three-year contract, in which he agreed to abide by this code of conduct.
On 6 Dec 2022, the company sent him a termination letter listing six occasions over the past few months that he had left at least one minute early.
Believing that the company lacked clear guidelines on what amounted to “leaving early”, Mr Chen then filed for arbitration with the Wuhan Labour Dispute Arbitration Commission.
He sought compensation for illegal termination of his contract and reimbursement for annual leave not taken.
The committee ruled in his favour.
Unwilling to pay compensation, the company took the case to court.
The People’s Court of Wuhan Donghu New Technology Development ruled that it was unreasonable for the company to interpret leaving one minute early as a violation.
Source: Sina.cn
According to “common sense”, when an employer pay wages on a monthly basis, it should review attendance on a monthly basis, it said.
Additionally, the court pointed out that the company had not communicated the issue of leaving early to the employee, nor proposed rectification or punishment, but only noted it in its termination letter.
Thus, Mr Chen’s termination lacked basis and was “unreasonable”, the court ruled. It should be considered an illegal termination and the company should pay compensation, it added.
Dissatisfied with the verdict, the company appealed but the original ruling was upheld.
The incident sparked debate on social media, with several netizens criticising the company’s labour management.
Many thought that terminating an employee for leaving work one minute early was unjustified.
Others mentioned that the issue has become more common, especially around the end of the year.
Also read: Employee in China fired for napping during work, sues company for S$64K compensation
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Featured image adapted from Freepik. Photo for illustration purposes only.
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