IBM Responds To Labor Dispute In China
IBM (IBM) China has made a response to the labor dispute in China, saying that it continued to provide economic and medical assistance to the employee after his submission of an application for resignation, but it has not made any comment on the judgment made by Shanghai Pudong New Zone Labor Arbitration Commission which asked it to fulfill the labor contract with the Chinese employee and pay him CNY57332 in compensation.
IBM Shanghai’s public relations department has sent a statement to Sina.com in which they say that they provided economic and medical assistance to the employee with depression after he filed a resignation application, and they won’t make any comment in detail as the case is still being decided.
Previously, Chinese media quoted the employee who said he would insist IBM carry out the arbitration result and would ask to go back to work in the company though he had not been contacted by the company following SPNZLAC’s judgment.
According to Sina.com, the unnamed employee signed a five-year labor contract with IBM in 2006 after his graduation from a famous university in Hubei Province and began to work as an R&D engineer for IBM Shanghai. However, because of the heavy work pressure at IBM, the employee soon was diagnosed with depression. After that, he submitted a resignation application to IBM to give him time to cure his illness, but IBM proposed he change the resignation into an extended sick leave. When the employee’s health returned and he asked to go back to IBM with the doctor’s suggestion of working while receiving therapy, his request was turned down by IBM. After a number of fruitless negotiations with IBM’s top management on resuming his duties, his health became worse. He even once attempted suicide after a meeting with the company’s top management.
On February 27, 2008, IBM Shanghai issued a notice to the employee, saying that the company would terminate the labor contract with him because he had broken the company’s disciplines and seriously affected the company’s normal work order. Believing that IBM China was discriminating against him for his depression, the employee has now sued, asking for IBM to continue fulfilling the labor contract with him, compensate him for past salary and pay him emotional compensation.