A pregnant woman surnamed Tan from Shandong province, dismissed by a manufacturing company, lodged a complaint with the local labor department against her employer in late October. But her complaint was rejected more than a month later. The incident has once again raised concerns over the rights and interests of grassroots workers, says an article in Beijing News. Excerpts:

Tan accused the company of humiliating employees by forcing them to enter their workplace through a 1-meter-high "hole" after they argued with the management over the Mid-Autumn Festival bonus. Tan said she chose the regular entrance instead of the "hole" because she was pregnant and soon after that the company fired her on trumped-up charges of attempted theft.

The company, in reply, said the 1-meter-high "hole" was being used as a "temporary entrance" because the lock on the regular gate was broken, a reason which is not at all convincing. Besides, a photograph taken from the workplace shows the use of "hole" as being unnecessary.

Tan filed a complaint with the local labor department in late October, but it was rejected only recently. One wonders what took the local labor department so long to reject a complaint and why it did so. More importantly, in more than a month that passed by, local labor department officials didn't bother to visit the workplace even once for investigation.

The labor department is responsible for strict supervision of corporate behavior to ensure workers a safe working environment. And it should not allow companies' actions that infringe upon workers' rights and interests to go unpunished.

(China Daily 12/28/2011 page9)