Chinese Company Locks Employee in 'Dark Room For 4 Days' to Force Him to Quit

Beijing: In a shocking incident, a company locked one of its employees in a dark room for four days to force the staff to quit over a labour dispute.

The incident came to light after the organisation Guangzhou Duoyi Network Co. Ltd. in China made it public after they challenged a court ruling on the case, as per media reports.

It all began in December 2022, when the employee identified as Liu discovered that he was unable to utilise his admission pass or log into the company's computer system. This came after a long discussion on his resignation letter.

The company official led Liu to a room saying that he had to attend a training programme. There was no power supply in the room, it was pitch black and was devoid of any computers or coworkers, and the only furniture it had was a table and chair.

Liu was not given any assignments during these four days and his phone was also seized but was apparently allowed to leave the room freely and go home after work.

On the fifth day, Liu's wife went to the police to report the company's abuse towards her husband and an official letter of termination was given.

In the lower court, the company said that Liu had broken company rules for the layoff to avoid having to pay compensation and was charged for looking at pictures of nude people and visiting irrelevant websites while at work. However, Liu, argued that as a game editor, the pictures he saw were necessary for his job.

Ruling in Liu's favour, the lower court ruled that for locking him in the dark room the company had to pay him a compensation of Rs 43.5 lakh ($52,200).

However, the company responded saying, "We believe that there are many problems with the labour laws which severely hinder economic development and are arbitrarily enforced by judges who distort the facts."