China: Hangzhou Court held that the employer infringed upon the employee’s equal employment rights and is ordered to issue an apology and pay compensation due to regional discrimination

On 3 July 2019, Yan submitted his resume to Company A and applied for legal affairs and chairman assistant positions. After reviewing Yan’s resume, Company A sent two notice letters to Yan, in which Company A wrote that Yan was not suitable for these positions and as for the reason, Company A simply put that Yan is from Henan (an administrative Province of China).

The Court considered that Company A treated Yan differently based on geographic elements, which is a “born factor” that cannot be selected by Yan or others. Therefore, the discrimination standard used by the defendant is unreasonable and should be prohibited by law. The Court also supported the plaintiff’s claims for the compensation for spiritual damages and reasonable legal costs, because it regarded that “employment discrimination will hinder the personality development of the worker, [exclude the worker from the job market], and unjustly damage the worker’s personality and self-esteem.” This is the first case concerning violations of an employee’s equal employment rights and thus has important implications for the workplace.