The dismissal of a Chinese employee from his job after his company discovered that he took 16,000 steps on his sick leave day sparked widespread controversy in China, after the decision was considered a violation of workers’ rights. The Chinese Ministry of Justice, in an official post on its account on the Weibo platform, explained the details of the case, noting that the employee, named Chen, was working in a company in Jiangsu Province, east of the country, and applied for sick leave after sustaining a back injury at work. Despite submitting medical reports from the hospital and a recommendation to rest, he later requested a new leave due to pain in his right foot, attaching a medical note advising him to stop working for a week. After he extended his leave for a few additional days, Chen was surprised by the decision to dismiss him from the company, which justified it by his unjustified absence and his claim of illness. In its defense to the authorities, the company showed a video clip from surveillance cameras showing Chen running in front of the workplace on the same day he requested leave, and it also presented data from a fitness application showing that he had taken 16,000 steps that day. But Chen responded that the evidence was inaccurate, and that he had provided comprehensive medical examinations proving his foot and back injury. After a series of deliberations, the court ruled that the company had illegally dismissed the employee, and obligated it to pay compensation amounting to 118,779 yuan (about 16,700 US dollars) after two successive trials. The case sparked widespread discussion on Chinese social platforms, where public opinion was divided between those who believed that the company had exceeded its limits in monitoring its employees’ data, and those who believed that Chen had not adhered to his sick leave. One user wrote, commenting: “The company has no right to use step data.” “To evaluate an employee’s honesty, this is personal information.” While another believed that the number of steps is not conclusive evidence of physical ability, saying: “Even if he took 16,000 steps, he may have been moving between the hospital and the pharmacy, and this does not mean that he is not sick.”
