Recently, a Shanghai employee took a temporary one-hour leave due to flooding caused by a typhoon, and multiple subway lines being suspended, but was deemed to have engaged in “deceitful behavior” by the company, facing a penalty of nearly 1500 yuan for performance. The administrative staff who approved the leave were also subject to penalties, with a proposed 50% deduction in performance. After the incident went viral, the company involved revoked the penalty and issued an apology.
According to a report by the “Xinjing News” on August 14, Typhoon “White Dolphin” brought strong winds and heavy rain to Shanghai on August 10. When the employee in question was getting ready to leave, it was windy and rainy outside, with flooding already occurring at the entrance of the residential area, and multiple subway lines in Shanghai were suspended.
The employee usually takes about an hour and a half to commute to work by subway. Worried about being late, she applied for a one-hour sick leave in the company system. Although the administrative staff approved it, the boss had not completed the approval. She still made it to the office that day, only to be criticized by the boss.
The company later issued a penalty decision, stating that the employee did not request the leave one working day in advance, which was deemed as “using sick leave to cover up lateness” and “deceitful behavior.” Another employee who took a full-day sick leave without authorization was also deemed to have been absent without permission.
According to the penalty decision, both employees who took leaves had 20% of their performance deducted, and the administrative staff who approved the leaves had 50% of their performance deducted. One of the employees involved expressed that if the punishment was carried out, she would lose nearly 1500 yuan, while being late once usually only resulted in a fine of 200 yuan.
The company involved acknowledged in the penalty decision that extreme weather had an impact on employees’ commutes, yet still categorized the temporary leave as a violation.
On the evening of August 9, several departments in Shanghai issued notices stating that due to the impact of the typhoon resulting in employees missing work, employers were not allowed to treat it as being late or absent, cut salaries or benefits, impose disciplinary actions, or terminate labor relations.
Following the exposure of the incident, the personnel department of Qingpu District in Shanghai stated that the company’s punishment was irregular, and that the penalized employees could file complaints with the labor supervision department.
Ma Yikun, a partner at Shanghai Qifang Law Firm, mentioned that requiring employees to foresee subway suspensions and road flooding a day in advance is not practical. The employee had explained the reasons and submitted a leave request, and the company labeling it as “deceitful” without factual basis, and significantly reducing performance, lacked legal grounds.
After the incident became a hot topic on August 13, the labor department in Shanghai, along with the market supervision department, initiated an investigation. An official announcement mentioned that the company indeed had planned to penalize three employees with performance deductions, but they had not been carried out yet. The company revoked the penalty decision that same evening and apologized to the three employees.
The incident sparked criticism from a large number of netizens. Some sarcastically commented: “Will the typhoon ask employees a day in advance ‘Is there flooding in front of your house tomorrow? Are the subways suspended?'” Others expressed that in extreme weather conditions, human safety should take precedence over attendance punching in, and even the personnel who approved the leave faced penalties, which may only discourage management from approving employees to seek safety in future disasters.