You know that feeling when you receive work messages from your boss or superior even after you have clocked off and all you want to do is take a breather from work? Perhaps none more so than this lady surnamed Wang who was a beverage store manager from Ningbo, Zhejiang in China who could relate to this well.
According to TVBS, Wang had finished work and was at home on July 2 when her phone rang as her boss had sent her a message in the work group chat at around 10.23pm. In the message, he asked her for the current month’s revenue report. He also said that if she did not reply within 10 minutes, she would be fired. Wah, need like that or not!
At that time, Wang had already fallen asleep so she did not see the message. True to his word, her boss proceeded to send another message in the group chat saying that Wang was fired as she did not reply within the stipulated time. As you can imagine, she was shocked when she woke up the next day and saw the messages.
Thinking that her boss didn’t mean it, she went to work as usual but was surprised to discover that she was really fired from her job for that petty reason. In addition, her company refused to pay the salary they owed her for the previous month. That’s not right!
Furious, Wang decided to ask for help from lawyers as she felt that she was wrongfully dismissed and the lawyers agreed. After studying her case, they said that the company had violated a few regulations according to the labour laws in China.
They said that after Wang had finished work, she did not need to respond to any messages after work. If the company assigned tasks to Wang after she had clocked off and required her to complete it before the start of the next working day, this would be considered as overtime and she should be paid accordingly. Can we tell our bosses the same thing?
It was also discovered that Wang had announced that she was pregnant in June and this was part of the reason that her company had unceremoniously fired her, which was obviously against the law. Wang’s lawyers proceeded to sue the company and they gave her a compensation of 18,000 RMB (RM10,800).
At least Wang knows that she has gotten rid of a bad boss and can look for a better job!
Also read: Company Tests 4-Day Work Week, Employees Return Energised After Long Weekend