China’s new Employment Promotion Law contains clear and specific provisions guarding against employment discrimination but, as recent media reports have shown, the problem is still widespread and largely unchecked.
A report by the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao (available at Sina.com), claimed that the Hong Kong owned company Li Man Feng Yuan (利满丰源) in Shenzhen forced five pregnant employees to resign. In one case, a woman surnamed Zhou, who had been with the company’s quality control department since 2005, was pressured to resign after she got pregnant in March this year. Ms Zhou refused to resign but on 15 July company employees received an email entitled, “A notice regarding the deletion of email accounts of employees who have left the company,” and to Ms. Zhou’s dismay, she found her name on the list. Ms. Zhou then received a formal written notice, saying that her department had been abolished and her desk was to be transferred to the warehouse. There, she found her desk stuck between security guards and the elevators, without a fan or air-conditioning.
The company claimed that the five women who “resigned” had either gone back to their hometowns or negotiated the conditions of their resignation and had been appropriately compensated. Of course, the real reason companies like Li Man Feng Yuan want employees to resign rather than fire them is that they don’t want to pay the compensation required by the Labour Contract Law of one month’s salary for every year of employment. See also "Why is the boss so heartless?".
In another Shenzhen case, the Shenzhen Evening News reported that a worker at a security equipment factory, surnamed Zhao, had been fired from his job after he was forced to shave his head for the medical evaluation, revealing a birthmark on his head. While the absurdity and arbitrary nature of firing an otherwise qualified person for a birthmark makes for headline news, more worrisome, perhaps, is the routine discriminatory practices that also took place in this case at the medical examination. The Shenzhen Evening News (translated here by Danwei) said:
“The next day, a medical examination was arranged for new recruits. On July 8, Zhao and another four employees were told to pack up, supposedly because three were suspected of having Hepatitis B, another of heart beats that were too fast, and Zhao for a skin disease that was believed to be contagious. All of them were given 600 yuan severance money.”
Discrimination against China’s 120 million Hepatitis B carriers is one of the most serious and longstanding forms of employment and social discrimination in China. See CLB analysis of the problem in Responding to Hepatitis B discrimination in the workplace.
A report by the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao (available at Sina.com), claimed that the Hong Kong owned company Li Man Feng Yuan (利满丰源) in Shenzhen forced five pregnant employees to resign. In one case, a woman surnamed Zhou, who had been with the company’s quality control department since 2005, was pressured to resign after she got pregnant in March this year. Ms Zhou refused to resign but on 15 July company employees received an email entitled, “A notice regarding the deletion of email accounts of employees who have left the company,” and to Ms. Zhou’s dismay, she found her name on the list. Ms. Zhou then received a formal written notice, saying that her department had been abolished and her desk was to be transferred to the warehouse. There, she found her desk stuck between security guards and the elevators, without a fan or air-conditioning.
The company claimed that the five women who “resigned” had either gone back to their hometowns or negotiated the conditions of their resignation and had been appropriately compensated. Of course, the real reason companies like Li Man Feng Yuan want employees to resign rather than fire them is that they don’t want to pay the compensation required by the Labour Contract Law of one month’s salary for every year of employment. See also "Why is the boss so heartless?".
In another Shenzhen case, the Shenzhen Evening News reported that a worker at a security equipment factory, surnamed Zhao, had been fired from his job after he was forced to shave his head for the medical evaluation, revealing a birthmark on his head. While the absurdity and arbitrary nature of firing an otherwise qualified person for a birthmark makes for headline news, more worrisome, perhaps, is the routine discriminatory practices that also took place in this case at the medical examination. The Shenzhen Evening News (translated here by Danwei) said:
“The next day, a medical examination was arranged for new recruits. On July 8, Zhao and another four employees were told to pack up, supposedly because three were suspected of having Hepatitis B, another of heart beats that were too fast, and Zhao for a skin disease that was believed to be contagious. All of them were given 600 yuan severance money.”
Discrimination against China’s 120 million Hepatitis B carriers is one of the most serious and longstanding forms of employment and social discrimination in China. See CLB analysis of the problem in Responding to Hepatitis B discrimination in the workplace.