Deliveryman's boss should exercise restraint

A deliveryman of S.F. Express is deliverying package in Zhengzhou April.19,2016.[Photo/IC]

Wang Wei, CEO of the leading Chinese logistics company S.F. Express, has pledged to hold accountable a Beijing taxi driver who recently slapped one of the company's employees when his delivery cart bumped into the taxi. China Youth Daily commented on Wednesday:

The 57-year-old taxi driver should have exercised restraint instead of slapping the deliveryman, who did not fight back but kept apologizing. But it would be equally wrong for anyone to take "revenge" on the taxi driver, who has already been given 10 days in detention by the Beijing police.

In response, S.F. Express has stressed more than once via Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform, that the taxi driver should be held accountable and the deliveryman he assaulted is not supposed to accept reconciliation. The CEO of the company Wang Wei also promised to "get to the bottom" of the incident, saying that otherwise he would be "unfit to lead the company" any more.

Wang's anger toward the driver is understandable, but he should respect the deliveryman's decision, be it reconciling with the cabbie or accepting money as compensation. It is the deliveryman who should decide whether to take the driver to court, not his employer, which is apparently very concerned about the dignity and legal interests of its employees.

However, the company should not step into the dispute.

Both the CEO and his company are on shaky legal ground in regard to their online statements that repeatedly encourage the deliveryman to refuse any sort of reconciliation with the driver.

The deliveryman has received due public support and attention, and the company has secured a decent reputation for defending its employees. Wang and his colleagues should now respect the decision of the deliveryman as well as his legal rights.