Employers around the world seem to be facing lawsuits alleging that they have been unfair with their employees.
An employee in China filed a case against his former employer alleging that his employer forced him to be present for online training after office hours. Wang, who worked as an engineer for the company for about three years, revealed that the employees who failed to attend these after-work-hours meetings were required to donate about Rs 2,400 voluntarily to the firm. The company did not consider these sessions as overtime and had apparently said that the employees were not obligated to be active participants either; they could choose not to listen. Therefore, as per the company these sessions could not be really considered part of work or work hours.
While Wang’s claim was dismissed by a smaller court, when he escalated the matter, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court reportedly ruled in his favour saying that the company’s training sessions were held after office hours and the voluntary donation was just a way of ensuring attendance. The company will now have to pay Wang over Rs 2 lakhs as compensation for working overtime.
Meanwhile, a German news report says that a law student filed 36 lawsuits over a four-year period against a restaurant where he used to work as a part-time waiter. While employed there, the student was transferred to the kitchen when he tried to set up a works council. When he refused the movement, he was fired without any notice. The restaurant also declared that it had gone bankrupt during that time and conveyed that its business was being taken over by another firm. The student then named his director also in the lawsuit. In the meantime, he graduated and obtained a law degree, while adding several more lawsuits seeking damage for all the tips (about €100 per shift), discounts and earnings he had lost out on, compensation for washing work clothes at home, paid time off for refusing to take work and paid vacation. In total, he sought compensation to the tune of €100,000 from his former employer along with a written apology.
Fortunately for the student, the Munich Labour Court ruled in his favour, declaring his dismissal as being against the law and indicative of discrimination. It observed that the student’s transfer to the kitchen, followed by termination was only to keep him from setting up a works council.
Elsewhere, in Abu Dhabi a company has a lost case where the employee alleged that they’d been given an offer letter but not onboarded, and therefore, their salary was withheld. The company maintained that the employee had failed to join and had gone on leave so was not eligible for full pay. According to the employee, they weren’t allowed to join as the date of joining kept on getting postponed, forcing them to keep waiting from November 2024 to April 2025. As a result, the employee claimed they had lost out on the salary for the period. The court favoured the employee and has asked the company to compensate them for about Rs 26 lakhs.