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.
这名女士在太仓市（江苏省苏州市下辖的县级市）的一家珠宝公司担任职员。
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.
8月4日，这位女士收到了老板送的一些鲜花礼物。他的理由？那天是阴阳七月七日。七夕节。
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.
但这是一个诡计。送完礼物后，他在微信中邀请这位女士做他儿子的女朋友。她拒绝了。
A later exchange between the two, a screenshot of which accompanies this article, went thus:
后来两人之间的交流（本文随附的屏幕截图）是这样的：
Boss: “Didn’t I say I introduced my son to you?”
老板：“我不是说过把我儿子介绍给你了吗？”
Clerk: “I’d still rather not; it would affect work.”
职员：“我还是不愿意，影响工作。”
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.”
老板：“如果你不愿意，你就没有工作。我只是想先把你介绍给我儿子，然后再谈工作。”
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.
不久之后，这位女士被叫到人力资源部门，被告知她不适应公司文化。然后她被要求签署自己的辞呈。
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.
这足以让太仓市人力资源和社会保障局介入。昨天8月11日，该局工作人员回应记者称，此事正在了解并妥善处理。
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”.
《劳动合同法》（2007）第39条规定：“劳动者有下列情形之一的，用人单位可以解除劳动合同：（一）在试用期内被证明不具备录用资格的；（二）严重违反用人单位规章制度的；（三）严重失职、徇私舞弊，给用人单位造成重大损失的；（四）同时设立劳动合同的。与其他用人单位存在关系，严重影响原用人单位完成工作任务，或者原用人单位提请改正后拒不改正的；（五）有本法第二十六条第一款第（一）项规定情形，致使劳动合同无效的；（六）被依法追究刑事责任的；
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.
武汉大成律师事务所律师柴鑫表示，否则属于非法解雇，需向员工支付双倍经济补偿。
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.
本案中，一名员工被强行强行与公司领导的儿子谈话，并在员工拒绝后被恶意解雇。除了任何其他不当行为之外，这也是 2022 年最臭名昭著的不公平解雇案件。
