A man has been awarded 194,000 yuan in compensation after the company fired him for refusing to bring his laptop computer to work from home during the Spring Festival holiday. The company appealed against the decision but was rejected by the court on Monday.
The man, surnamed Zhang, who worked at a consulting company in Shanghai as a software engineer, was fired after the Spring Festival of 2019. Zhang's company asked him to take his computer home on the grounds that the customer he was responsible for may require emergency services during the holiday.
Zhang rejected the company's order as he wanted to relax and spend the holiday with his family without any work obligations.
He was later informed by the company that he had been fired because he "maliciously refused and delayed performing the tasks arranged by the company, and violated the company's working hours regulations," according to the dismissal notice.
Shanghai Pudong Court affirmed that the company's termination of its labor contract with Zhang on the grounds of violation of regulations was illegal, and should therefore compensate Zhang for the contract termination, overtime wages and other expenses.
