Chapter 795: Chapter 254: Company Fines and Salary Confidentiality_2 Chapter 795 -254: Company Fines and Salary Confidentiality_2 “Judgment Chief, I’d like to request to question the plaintiff,”
Upon hearing this, the Judgment Chief glanced at the ashen-faced President Liu, and then at Old Tang with a smile on his face, and nodded, “The defense representative is permitted to question.”
Old Tang immediately looked towards President Liu across from him and began, “First of all, I’d like to ask, what legal basis or standard did Kaisen Company use to establish the policy within their company rules that deducts three days of salary for one day of absenteeism?”
It’s generally accepted that companies are strictly prohibited from imposing fines, although there isn’t a specific legal stipulation.
According to “Legislation Law” and “Administrative Penalty Law,” fines are a type of property penalty, and penalties on property must be established by laws, regulations, and rules.
Clearly, no law states that corporations have the right to impose fines.
The previous “Enterprise Staff Rewards and Disciplinary Regulations” did have relevant stipulations, but it was abolished in 2008.
Locally, “Shenzhen Municipality Regulations on the Payment of Wages” also once had similar regulations, which allowed economic penalties for employees violating company rules established in accordance with legal regulations.
However, in 2022, Shenzhen removed the section regarding “disciplinary economic penalties” for employees.
And “Guangdong Province Labor Security Supervision Regulations,” enacted in 2012 and revised in 2019, Article 50, states if an employer’s set of rules contains content regarding fines, the administrative department of human resources and social security will order its correction and issue a warning.
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Thus, we can see that from a legislative perspective, there’s a tendency to prohibit company-imposed fines.
Nevertheless, many local wage payment regulations also state that companies can outline deductions from employees’ wages, provided that such rules have legal or regulatory grounds.
It might seem a bit convoluted, but that’s appropriate.
On one hand, it’s important to protect workers, and on the other, the management rights of companies must also be considered.
Old Tang’s line of questioning is aimed at making the other party clarify what legal or regulatory grounds they had for establishing this rule and what standard they used.
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President Liu wanted to add something but was quickly restrained by Old Bai.
However, even Old Bai couldn’t articulate the basis for these rules at the moment.
Who knows how President Liu had come up with them originally; he might have simply thought it up on a whim, and then this rule came into existence.
But now he still had to say something.
Finally, Old Bai thought of something and immediately said, “This is based on the losses the company suffers due to employees violating rules.”
That was the only rationale he could come up with; otherwise, there seemed to be no alternative explanation.
President Liu felt satisfied again, looking at Old Bai beside him, thinking he wasn’t too bad, especially since he hadn’t thought of these points when he’d made the rule.
Old Tang was momentarily stunned because on the system panel in front of him, it clearly stated: it’s possible to explore the aspect of employees violating rules and causing losses to the company.
This really gave the feeling that catching is better than playing – before he had even raised the issue, the opposing side had already volunteered the information.
Indeed, Old Tang’s original strategy was to first ask what basis they had for deducting wages for rule violations, such as Article 19 of the “Labor Contract Law,” Article 16 of the “Provisional Regulations on Wage Payment,” and so on.
Among these, the basis for employees compensating the company for losses caused by rule violations is in Provisional Regulation Article 16.
List all these out, choose the most likely basis for deduction, and then step by step lead the other party into the trap he had set.
But now, before he’d even begun, the other side had already started digging their own pit…
Digging one’s own pit and then jumping into it was a bit too proactive, making Old Tang feel slightly embarrassed.
“Oh, I understand what the plaintiff is saying.
So, am I right to assume that the company believes any employee absent for one day creates a loss equal to three days’ worth of their wages?” Old Tang spoke again, struggling to maintain his composure.
“How did you determine this standard, then?
Does a day of absenteeism by senior management also result in three days’ salary loss?”
Old Bai was at a loss to respond to these consecutive questions.
“This…
I’m not sure of the specifics, but…”
Seeing Old Bai starting to ramble, Old Tang immediately said, “Hence, Judgment Chief, the other party is not even clear whether one day of absenteeism leads to a loss of three days, so this company rule is completely illegal.”
If the company’s own rules don’t match up with the legal bases they claim, then surely that’s illegal.
Acknowledging this boils down to an indirect fine, disguised as a wage deduction.
Old Tang’s earlier questioning was merely to walk through this proof process.
Wages are paid based on the labor provided; if an employee is absent for a day, the company may refrain from paying that day’s wages, but they cannot impose punitive deductions for that reason, as it lacks legal justification.
What should normally be done?
First, withhold the wages for the day of absenteeism, and then if the employee’s absence causes a loss to the company, the company deducts from the wages based on the specific situation of the loss.
Moreover, this deduction can’t exceed twenty percent of the monthly wages.
Unfortunately, most companies now deduct money first, without consideration, for any reason—lateness, leaving early, not keeping the desk tidy, not working overtime, etc.—if there’s a reason, they deduct money first.
Old Bai was numbed, and President Liu felt as if he was listening to something utterly nonsensical—these incomprehensible laws and baffling local regulations left him completely bewildered.
