In an effort to force an employee to resign, a company in China confined him to a “small dark room” for four days due to a labor dispute. The shocking details of the case emerged after the company, Guangzhou Duoyi Network Co. Ltd., made the incident public while challenging a court’s decision on the matter.
The room where Liu was detained was completely devoid of computers and colleagues, with just a table and a chair as its only furnishings, and no source of light, according to the South China Morning Post.
How Liu’s Situation Unfolded
The situation began in December 2022 when Liu, who had been negotiating his resignation, found that he could no longer use his access pass or log into the company’s computer system. The company then took him to a different floor under the pretense of “training,” but instead locked him in a dark, empty room with no work assignments and seized his phone.
Liu was allowed to leave the room and go home after “work,” but remained confined there for four days. It was only on the fifth day, after Liu’s wife reported the abuse to the police, that the company formally issued a notice of termination.
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Guangzhou Duoyi Network contended that Liu had violated company rules as a pretext for dismissal to avoid paying compensation. They accused him of viewing inappropriate material and accessing irrelevant websites during work hours, although Liu, a game art editor, argued that such material was relevant to his job.
The lower court ruled in favor of Liu, determining that confining him to the “dark room” breached the Labour Contract Law, which mandates a safe and healthy work environment. The company took to Weibo to post the entire court record and publicly challenged a May 2024 verdict from a district court in Sichuan Province that awarded Liu 380,000 yuan (US$52,200) in damages for the company’s actions.
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