Chinese company keeps employee in 'dark room' for four days without electricity or phone to make him resign

In a draconian move, a Chinese company locked its employee inside a “small dark room” for four days to force him to submit his resignation.

The incident came to the public after a court ruling in this case was challenged by the company Guangzhou Duoyi Network Co Ltd.

The complete court document was published by the company on its official Weibo account in which they openly disagreed with a ruling given by a district-level court in May in Sichuan province, southwestern China.

The court had said that Guangzhou Duoyi Network’s subsidiary in Sichuan needs to pay their employee Liu Linzhu ¥380,000 ($52,200) as compensation for their torturous actions.

Responding to the court's ruling, the company said, “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.”

Here's how the incident unfolded

The incident happened in December 2022 when Liu discovered that he had been logged out from the computer system of the company and was also not able to use his entry pass.

The employee faced this situation after protracted negotiations over his resignation.

The company said to Liu that he needed to participate in “training” and took him to a room, which was on a different floor and not on the one where his workstation was.

The room was pitch dark and had no power supply. There were no computers and none of his colleagues were present there. The room was furnished only with a table and chair.

For four days, Liu was given permission to walk out of the room “freely” and go home after “work”, but no tasks were assigned to him and the company also confiscated his mobile phone.

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On day five, his wife reported how the company was treating theiremployee to the police after which an official notice was issued to fire him.

To escape paying compensation, Guangzhou Duoyi Network said that he was laid off because he had violated company policies. The company also accused the employee of checking nude images and visiting unrelated websites during working hours.

(With inputs from agencies)