Chinese company threatens to fire single employees in marriage-boosting policy, backtracks immediately

Vowing to boost the company's marriage rate, a company in China introduced a new policy requiring single and divorced employees to get hitched in a matter of months.

It threatened to fire employees that did not comply, citing the government's "call to improve the marriage rate", reported the South China Morning Post. '

But after conducting an inspection, government officials informed the company that its policy violated labour laws.

The company subsequently withdrew the policy.

Get married or get out

The company, located in Shandong, China, employs more than 1,200 people, SCMP reported.

In January, it announced its new policy requiring single and divorced employees to "get married and settle down" by end-September the same year.

The policy applied to employees aged between 28 and 58.

If they did not do so by end-March, they would be required to write a self-criticism letter, the policy said.

If they were unable to do so by end-June, they would be subject to a company "evaluation".

Finally, if they were still single by the end of September, they would be fired.

"Not responding to the government’s call to improve the marriage rate is disloyal. Not listening to your parents is not filial. Letting yourself be single is not benevolent. Failing your colleagues’ expectations is unjust,” the company said in its announcement.

Unconstitutional

The policy ended up being relatively short-lived.

Local human resources and social security told The Beijing News that it had inspected the company on Feb. 13.

Within a day, the company withdrew its policy.

No personnel had yet been fired.

A government staff member said that the policy violated China's Labour Law and Labour Contract Law, while a professor at Peking University told local media that the policy was unconstitutional.

The associate professor, Yan Tian, explained that the policy was against the freedom of marriage.

According to Chinese law, a marriage system must be "based on the free choice of partners, on monogamy and on equality between man and woman".

Both man and woman must be completely willing, with no compulsion used on either part, and no third party may interfere, the law states.

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