Chinese netizens are concerned that workers' rights in China aren't enforceable after media reports revealed that a college in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, wrongfully dismissed an English teacher after school administrators learned she had ovarian cancer.
The teacher, 32-year-old Liu Lingli, has since died from heart disease reportedly related to her cancer. Her mother complained to the media that Liu received the school's notice of termination within a month after she submitted for sick leave. Liu's employer, Lanzhou Jiaotong University Bowen College (LJUBC), suspended her health insurance, so Liu and her family had to pay for all of her medical fees, which were well beyond their means. Without a source of income, Liu reportedly had to sell clothes on the street, despite being sick, to pay her bills.
The news has outraged netizens who slammed the college for being brutal and inhuman. LJUBC administrators later argued that they dismissed Liu because she took too long to extend her sick leave and they did not know she had cancer, they thought it was a less serious ailment. Netizens generally saw this as a flimsy excuse. "How could the college not know about the teacher's illness? Didn't her mother go to the college, or didn't they call the teacher when she extended her absence from work?” questioned one netizen.
According to China's labor laws, no employer is allowed to fire an employee because of illness within a defined "medical period," which lasts from three months to one year, depending on how long the employee has worked at that workplace. For this reason, Liu's family sued LJUBC. The court affirmed that the college violated labor laws, but did not agree that LJUBC should renew Liu's health insurance. This led many in China's online community to doubt the effectiveness of China's labor laws, saying that while these regulations protect workers' rights and interests on paper, they are poorly implemented. According to media reports, LJUBC has dismissed other employees with illnesses before, but few of them have successfully taken on the college in court.
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