A Chinese company was ordered to pay compensation for forcing an employee to resign by leaving them in a dark room for three days.
The South China Morning Post recently reported the Sichuan province local court ordered a Chinese game development company, Guangzhou Duoyi Network, to pay 380,000 yuan (approximately $59,400) to a former employee, Liu Linzhu, on charges of violating labor contract law agreements.
In December 2022, Liu, an art director, discovered he could no longer access the company’s system or use his access card. The company then took Liu to a room on a different floor from his usual workspace, claiming it was for training.
Having no running electricity, the room was dark and had minimal furnishings.
Liu’s cell phone was confiscated.
Initially wanting to resign, Liu could come and go freely to the office for three days but was essentially confined without any assigned tasks.
Liu’s wife reported the unfair treatment to the police, and three days later, the company issued a notice of termination.
The company stated that they fired Liu for violating company policy by viewing inappropriate images during work hours and using websites unrelated to his job. However, Liu disputed these claims, asserting that he was searching for images as part of his work duties.
The local court sided with Liu, but the company publicly objected, stating, “We believe that there are many problems with the labor laws which severely hinder economic development and are arbitrarily enforced by judges who distort the facts.“
Guangzhou Duoyi Network was previously criticized for workplace harassment in 2020. Chairman Xu Bo caused controversy by implementing voluntary employee pay cuts despite the company’s profit.
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