‘A blessing’: China court lauds rule of law, backs transgender worker fired for being ‘absent’ while on leave recovering from reassignment surgery
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Details have emerged of a judicial decision by a Beijing court in 2020 which upholds the rights of a transgender woman who was fired for being “absent” after she took time off to recover from gender reassignment surgery.
The previously unknown details, which have reignited discussions about equal employment rights in China, were posted online by the Shanghai Federation Trade Unions on November 29.
The case involves a transgender employee of the Chinese e-commerce platform Dangdang, surnamed Gao, who took her employer to court after it fired her for being absent in 2018 after she applied for sick leave with her supervisor on the day of her gender reassignment surgery.
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Gao submitted a medical certificate and documented the doctor’s advice that she needed two months off work after the surgery.
Her application for leave was affirmed by her superior but human resources staff rejected her application saying her certificates contained “unclear content and cannot prove sickness”.
Gao was fired by the company two months after she first applied for sick leave, and two months after that she formally sought labour dispute arbitration.
A letter the company sent Gao following her reassignment surgery was used by her as evidence of unlawful dismissal.
