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BEIJING: Two colleagues sued their company after being terminated for having an affair and openly kissing at work.
The man, known as Liu, and the woman, identified as Chen, were both employed in the same department of a pharmaceutical company in Sichuan province, southwestern China, according to a report from City Locale on August 28.
Their affair came to light when Liu’s wife shared their chat records with the company’s tennis chat group and the general manager in March 2020, leading to their subsequent termination.
The records included messages such as “I love you” and “I want to look at you all the time”.
After their affair was exposed Liu asked for leave to “take care of family issues” and Chen’s husband confronted her and Liu in the presence of their colleagues.
However, the affair continued, and they were spotted kissing again while at work.
A female colleague intervened in October 2020, asking Chen to stop the behaviour, which escalated into an argument.
The next day, seven colleagues wrote a joint complaint letter to the general manager.
The company fired Liu and Chen saying they “went off the rails and violated rules outlined in the employee handbook”.
Both filed lawsuits against the company. Chen asked for compensation of 26,000 yuan (US$3,700), while Liu, who had a more senior position in the company, asked for more than 230,000 yuan (US$32,000).
The company’s defence was that the employee handbook clearly states it has “the right to break the labour relationship with employees who are morally corrupt, tarnish the company’s reputation and have a negative influence on the company.”
The courts supported the company and dismissed their lawsuits.
“What a crazy world!” someone wrote on Douyin.
“Obviously they did not work hard enough if they had the energy to find colleagues attractive,” another said.
“Shame on them to even sue the company,” a third commented.
In 2020, a Chinese man was fired by his company in northeastern China’s Liaoning province for calling his female colleague “slutty”.
He sued the company with the justification that the Chinese character he was using, sao, was referring to the ancient Chinese poem Li Sao.
The court rejected his justification and dismissed his request for the company to compensate him with 470,000 yuan (US$66,000). - South China Morning Post
