Former RT-Mart employee's 'suicide' threats

A former RT-Mart employee has been sentenced to five months in detention after he took his pregnant wife to the rooftop of a city outlet and threatened to commit suicide by jumping off the building.

Jing'an District People's Court heard that Zhou Yanfei, 35, believing his boss's claims of bribery after he resigned meant he couldn't find a new job, had climbed to the rooftop of RT-Mart premises in Guangzhou and Shanghai at least three times to demand compensation before the latest incident.

Prosecutors said Zhou climbed onto the roof of the RT-Mart on Jiangyang Road in Jing'an District at noon on May 7 saying he would commit suicide. He soon drew a crowd more than a hundred onlookers.  

He was persuaded to come down by police at about 11pm.

An investigation showed that he had done the same thing three times before, with the first incident in September 2018. He had been detained by Guangzhou police on April 6.

Zhou told police he had actually done this six times, but on two occasions no one had noticed and he climbed down on his own. 

Zhou said he used to be a buyer for RT-Mart's South China headquarters in Guangzhou but had several disputes with his boss and eventually resigned. He said his boss's accusations of bribery had caused him to fail to find a new job. He wanted the company to restore his reputation and give him compensation. He believed the company was conniving in the boss's deeds.

He thought his actions could put pressure on RT-Mart to solve the problem. He did once get 25,000 yuan (US$3,558) from the company. However, because he felt his boss's claims stopped him from getting another job, he wanted the company to compensate him for the wages he lost from his resignation in November 2016 to now, a sum of 230,000 yuan.