In China, an employee of one of the technology companies was fired for fictitious sick leave: instead of treatment and bed rest, the man went to a tropical island.
According to Business Insider, a Beijing resident named “Mr. Xu” in court documents spent his two-week sick leave on the tropical island of Hainan.
According to China’s National Business Daily, “It all started when an employee applied for two weeks of paid leave, but was turned down by his manager “because of the need for manpower.”
“Subsequently, Xu told his superiors that he had spinal disease and provided medical documents in which the doctor recommended bed rest and neck exercises for him.
The source says that a colleague noticed the man at the Hainan airport and reported it to the management. In response to questions from his superiors, Xu stated that he was at home in Beijing and did not travel anywhere.
“I’m telling you that I was sick and didn’t travel. I was just recovering at home,” Xu was quoted as saying by Chinese media.
However, the worker was quickly exposed and fired within two days for “fraud and dishonesty.”
“In response, the fired worker filed a counterclaim, stating that he “did not deceive his former employer, because he allegedly had an apartment in Hainan and he traveled to the island and back, not to rest, but for health purposes, to recover from his illnesses. The clarification of the relationship between the former employee and the employer led to a labor dispute,” the publication reports.
Initially, the labor tribunal recognized the rightness of the worker and decided to pay him compensation for 620,000 yuan for violating labor laws.
The company disagreed with this decision and appealed it to the highest court, which overturned the compensation decision. The higher court absolved the employer from paying the compensation, stating that “Xu acted contrary to the doctor’s recommendations for bed rest.”
As a result, the swindler was left without work and compensation, but at large, unlike his Turkish “colleague”, who faces up to 15 years in prison for deceiving an employer and fraud with sick leave.