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Men who refused to stay in 'hot room' lost jobs

By Qiu Quanlin (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-13 09:03

GUANGZHOU: A company in Guangdong province tried to cook up a new way to legally fire employees - by ordering three men to sit in an overheated room until they try to escape.

They were then promptly sacked.

The case comes as companies deal with a new law requiring them to pay compensation when they fire workers who aren't at fault. In the wake of the economic crisis, many employers are creating excuses when they want to get rid of workers, said Yu Mingyong, deputy president of the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court.

"We were asked to sit without doing anything in the 38C workshop after we complained about high workloads in July," said Zeng Gaojin, one of the three victims.

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Zeng and two of his colleagues had been given more work than usual in the unnamed Foshan-based company, which is engaged in hardware production.

"We would be fined up to 50 yuan ($7.30) each day by the company if we didn't finish the work," said Zeng, a 32-year-old migrant worker from Hunan province.

The three were then fired by the company on Aug 5 after they got out of the hot workshop and fled into an air-conditioned meeting room.

"We could hardly bear the high temperature," Zeng said.

The ruling issued by the Chancheng district arbitration office against labor disputes said employees had the right not to obey the company's "illegal decision" asking them to remain in the heated workshop.

The company's decision violated relevant labor laws by restricting employees' freedom, the ruling said.

However, representatives from the company said Zeng and his two colleagues had been too slack in work after their complaint.

"We still paid them their basic salaries while they were asked to stay in the workshop," said a company manager surnamed Xu.

The arbitration office recently ordered the company to pay up to 40,000 yuan in compensation to the three workers.

The case is among the rising number of labor disputes following the implementation of the new Labor Contract Law last year and the many company closures amid the economic downturn.

In Guangzhou alone, the court handled more than 2,800 trials involving labor disputes in the first half of this year, accounting for more than half of the civil cases heard by the court, said Yu.

The number of labor disputes heard in court increased from 2,070 in 2007 to more than 3,300 last year, Yu said.