Labor contracts require negotiation; forced overtime is illegal.
[2] Compiled from: Shandong High Court
Case review
[2] Zhang joined a newspaper company as a delivery worker in September 2018, working 6 hours a day, 6 days a week, with a monthly salary of 3,500 yuan.
[3] In June 2020, due to the resignation of another delivery worker in the same area, the newspaper company assigned Zhang the tasks of that worker for the third quarter without consulting him. Zhang believed that completing the doubled workload would require extending his daily working hours by at least 4 hours, so he refused the arrangement.
[4] The newspaper company terminated Zhang’s labor contract based on its employee disciplinary system, citing his non-compliance with work arrangements. Zhang applied for arbitration to the Labor and Personnel Dispute Arbitration Committee, requesting a ruling that the newspaper company pay 14,000 yuan in compensation for illegal termination of the labor contract.
[5] The Arbitration Committee ruled
[6] A labor contract is a written agreement clarifying the rights and obligations of the employer and the worker. Without modification, both parties must strictly perform according to the agreement, especially regarding labor quota standards such as working hours.
In this case, the newspaper company significantly increased Zhang's work tasks beyond a reasonable limit, which should be considered a change to the content of the labor contract, violating the legal requirement of "mutual agreement" for modifying the labor contract, and constituting a disguised form of forcing the worker to work overtime.
Therefore, Zhang has the right to refuse the above arrangement in accordance with the law. The newspaper company's termination of the labor contract with Zhang on the grounds of non-compliance with work arrangements does not comply with legal provisions.
Thus, the arbitration committee legally ruled that the newspaper company must pay Zhang compensation of 14,000 yuan for the illegal termination of the labor contract.
Labor Contract Law of the People's Republic of China
Article 31: The employer shall strictly implement labor quota standards and shall not force or covertly force workers to work overtime.
Article 35: The employer and the worker may, upon mutual agreement, modify the content of the labor contract.
[1] The author's perspective
According to the above legal provisions, an employer may modify the labor contract through consultation and agreement with the worker, thereby safeguarding the worker's legitimate rights and interests while also facilitating the employer's reasonable adjustment of employment arrangements based on production and operational needs.
However, it should be noted that once a decision is made to modify the labor contract, the employer must adhere to the principles of fairness and legality, equality and voluntariness, consensus through consultation, and good faith. The key issue in this case is that after Zhang's colleague resigned, the employer unilaterally imposed the resigning colleague's workload on Zhang without any discussion, significantly increasing Zhang's workload and working hours, which directly affected Zhang's right to rest. Such substantial adjustments by the employer should have been fully negotiated with the worker, rather than being enforced through coercion or disguised coercion, and must not violate relevant legal provisions.
