After being unfairly dismissed, a Guangdong teacher battles back, securing double severance.
A teacher from Guangdong, whom we’ll refer to as Sofia to protect her privacy, sought our assistance after being fired, with bogus reasons like “safety issues” and “classroom management concerns.” Feeling cheated and unfairly treated for working so hard at the school, Sofia came to us for help.
After a quick analysis of the case, we decided that this was a blatant violation of the law, so we decided to take her case.
If your boss decides to fire you, you need to first check whether the company has legitimate grounds and supporting evidence for termination, as agreed upon in contract or your employee handbook.
If thre are no grounds for firing you, your boss is legally obligated to pay double severance pay. Under Article 47 of the Labor Contract Law, standard severance pay entitles employees to one month’s salary for each year of service.
Since Sofia’s company fired her without following the correct procedures, she is entitled to double severance pay. As she worked for nearly 3 years, double severance is six months’ salary in total.
First, we helped her draft a formal response to the school.
As is often the case, the school initially offered Sofia a mere one-month salary and a small retirement bonus, asserting that the termination was lawful and refusing to meet the double severance requirement.
We declined the measly offer as we had great confidence in the case, so we directly went to labour arbitration.
After receiving official notification from the labour arbitration committee, the school approached us desperately seeking a settlement. Following negotiations, we secured an agreement for 90,000 RMB—a substantial 85% of the original claim, as well as a work experience certificate for Sofia which was needed for her new employer.
