Court rules company illegally terminated employee

A software engineer surnamed Zhang was fired because he refused to work for his consulting company during Spring Festival in 2019.

A court in Pudong recently ruled that the company pay Zhang 194,000 yuan (US$30,000) in compensation.

Zhang had worked for the company for four years. In 2019, he took leave for 27 consecutive days, including the Spring Festival holiday and annual leave.

The firm asked Zhang to take his laptop home over the holiday, because it claimed customers may need emergency services. He refused saying he needed to spend time with his family and had no obligation to work during that time.

After labor arbitration, authorities ruled the company had to compensate Zhang for illegally terminating his contract, after which the company took him to court.

The court determined the arbitration result was reasonable. It said although it was understandable that the company asked Zhang to work during an emergency, he was under no obligation to do so during his time off.