The Beijing Haidian District People’s Court and the Beijing No. 1 People’s Court reportedly confirmed an employee’s continuous employment with an employer beyond the mutual termination date as a result of a work injury suffered by the employee after accepting immediate mutual termination but before completing all handover work. The employer was ordered to pay the employee RMB96,000 (US$ 14,172) in back salary for six months of work injury leave during the extended employment period.
The employee agreed to mutual termination with immediate effect and to complete handover work within six days. However, the employee was injured in a traffic accident on the second day following the termination date while traveling to the company’s premises for handover matters. The employer refused to apply for work injury certification for the employee by arguing that the employment relationship had terminated before the injury occurred. In response, the employee filed a work injury claim with the labour bureau. The labour bureau ruled for the employee and certified the employee’s work injury. Once the work injury was certified, the employer was thereby required to pay salary during the employee’s work injury leave.
The employer appealed the labour bureau decision and asked the court to revoke the work injury certification. Both courts upheld the labour bureau decision that the employee’s injury while travelling to work to conduct handover matters was a work injury; thus, the courts ruled that the employment relationship should be extended to the end of the work injury leave period.
Business Law Digest is compiled with the assistance of Baker McKenzie. Readers should not act on this information without seeking professional legal advice. You can contact Baker McKenzie by e-mailing Danian Zhang (Shanghai) at danian.zhang@bakermckenzie.com
