Lawyer Larry Zhou assisted foreign senior executive to receive severance pay exceeding 500k RMB

At the end of 2019, after receiving a dismissal notice, the client approached the team led by Lawyer Larry Zhou of Landing Law Offices China.

The client came to China for this job, took a long time to adopt to living in China and was performing well, only to be dismissed unlawfully. The situation was very unfavourable for our client.

Faced with the legally unfounded dismissal notice, Lawyer Zhou issued a letter of demand on behalf of the client, visited and negotiated with the company, and assessed the situation of the case by contacting the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs and applying for government information disclosure to verify the client’s foreigner's work permit information. Lawyer Zhou's timely intervention urged the employer to allow the client to continue to live in China for nearly two months and to consider the next steps.

After explaining China’s labour law-related legislation, regulations and cases with the client, the client decided to file a labour arbitration claim, wishing to continue to perform the contract. Although the arbitration institution is unlikely to support a request for specific performance in dismissal cases, the initiation of arbitration raised the attention of the company’s management and created an opportunity for the arbitration institution to mediate the dispute. Through investigation and evidence collection of the arbitration institution, it was confirmed that that the client’s working permit was handled by the employer’s affiliated company. In this case, it is generally considered that there is no labour relationship, but only a contract of service. Therefore, Lawyer Zhou decisively withdrew the arbitration application on behalf of the client, filed a complaint about the employer's illegal employment of foreigners, and prepared a civil lawsuit.

While preparing to initiate the suit, the pressure Lawyer Zhou put on the employer was also effective, as the employer took the initiative to contact Lawyer Zhou for mediation. Through active communication and seeking common ground in the interests of both parties, Lawyer Zhou facilitated the two parties to reach a mediation agreement. In the end, the employer paid our client more than 500k RMB in severance pay.

Contact Us

Larry Zhou, Partner

Landing Law Offices China

Mobile& WhatsApp: +86 13342931852

Email: shichao.zhou@landinglawyer.com

Wechat: zhoushichaozsc

Linkedin: Larry Zhou