Punished for not reaching work goals? Staff 'voluntarily kneel' on public bridge
They failed to reach their goals at work.
As punishment, several employees of a company ended up kneeling on a bridge in Xiamen, east China's Fujian province, for an hour.
Each of the five men and sole woman had a piece of paper with their names in front of them, which read: “I voluntarily kneel for 60 minutes on this bridge for not reaching my goals.”
The incident happened on Jan 15 and stirred much debate online.
Photo: Weibo/ fjbaoliao
The story has received over 100,000 views since Xiamen Daily published it this week.
Jimei University law teacher Ju Donghong told the daily:
"The company might be legally responsible for such punishments if it was found to have coerced its employees to do so.
"If it's not voluntary, then it violates their rights as people."
Many netizens who left comments sympathised with the workers' plight.
One said:
"It's so humiliating to kneel in front of the public and have your name there for the world to see.
"If I was one of them, I'd rather quit this job."
Another said it was a terrible blow to the pride.
While some people wondered whether it was some kind of business promotion that the company put on, others were critical of the workers themselves.
Added another online user: "These employees have no guts."
Source: Xiamen Daily, Weibo
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