Chapter 17.2 “Your new assistant? Has she passed the judicial examination?”

The immediate shutdown would force employees like Song Lianjun to quickly find another job. Even at the expense of lowering their own worth, just so that they could find a new job to at least support their families. Once they have a new job, inevitably they would have to take the initiative to terminate their contract with Simon Paper immediately. If any employee secretly signed two employment contracts behind Simon Paper’s back, it would be easy. According to Ji Lin’s ability, he would be able to fire the employee for breach of contract by working for two companies at the same time.

It would be an easy move to save money without any effort.

It was the perfect solution for layoffs.

The only thing left to fight for was …

Bai Duanduan looked at Ji Lin, “Since Simon Paper has a union, has the union agreed to the decision to suspend work and production?”

As long as one of the union members was on the list of 111 people involved in the shutdown, there was no way they could easily agree to this proposal!

As if he was waiting for Bai Duanduan to ask this question, Ji Lin smiled pleasantly, “Of course. The union will agree.”

He glanced at Song Lianjun, “He’s not in the union, and none of his other 110 colleagues are in the union either. So for the sake of the overall interests of the company, I’ll convince the union. After all, this is really a suspension of work and production.”

111 people, and not a single one of them was in the union!

Bai Duanduan frowned and looked at Song Lianjun, who then explained as a matter of fact, “We all thought the union was useless …… usually always takes up time on weekends to organise this and that activity. We are all old employees with families and are not interested in such weekend activities. To join, we had to pay union fees and occasionally have meetings and a lot of stuff. We didn’t find it interesting, so we never joined ……”

This was the typical example of how you refuse responsibility and therefore lose rights. Without ownership, you can’t control your own destiny.

No one usually finds a union useful until a labour dispute befalls them. Many workers simply don’t realise that the voice they gain when they join a union would be the bargaining chip they can use while negotiating with companies.

It’s just that not only do unions defend the legal rights of workers, they also need to defend the production and operation of the company and find a balance between the two. Although the shutdown affected 111 employees, Simon Paper was still a large company, with other more production lines continuing to operate, and the other 189 people were rightly resigned and properly dealt with.

Of the 111 employees, none have joined the trade union. It was only natural that when the union would listen to the major decisions of the company, there might not be anyone who could be so empathetic in fighting for their rights and interests. It was not difficult to understand that the union would choose to support the suspension of production in the face of the overall interests. Now with such a turn of events, Ji Lin was confident of getting the union’s approval.

Even as an opponent, Bai Duanduan could not help but applaud Ji Lin. She had to admit that she was still a bit inexperienced compared to Ji Lin. She used to win so many cases in B City. It was because B City was a second-tier city, and the legal market and competitiveness were not as strong as A City, which was the provincial capital. She has never met a good opponent. She mistakenly thought that she could win every time because of her high level knowledge. But she does not know that she was just a middle school student doing math problems for elementary school students. She realised the gap as soon as she entered the university.

Previously, Bai Duanduan had always disapproved of returning from B City to A City, but it was not until this moment that she realized that coming back was the right thing to do. She has to see the gap before she can catch up and learn. ;

In this case, she was completely confined to her own thinking. Thinking about the layoffs of these 300 people and how to maximize the benefits for her employees. She didn’t expect Ji Lin to use the shutdown to take herself by surprise and leave her completely defenceless in the end.

He was well versed in labour law. He knows how to avoid risks and how to maximise the interests of the company.

Excluding his usual prejudice against her, Ji Lin was really very, very professional.

No wonder Zhang Junda said that once the case was against him, people were scared to death.

He has a persistence and coldness that won’t disappear until he wins, and professionally he was so calm that it was frightening.

If Bai Duanduan had met an opponent other than him, then there would have been no room for reversal in this case. She could have easily won through her own detailed preparations. But now because of Ji Lin’s trick, no matter how capable and resilient Bai Duanduan was, the provisions of the labor contract law were just that, and there was no way for her to help Song Lianjun and other employees to make a comeback.

The company was ultimately in a strong position with regard to its employees. Any light decision will cause a huge impact on the lives of employees. Ji Lin’s move turned the case into one that she absolutely could not win, and all of a sudden she was left with no advantage on her side.

An enterprise needs to obtain the consent of its labour unions to dismiss employees, otherwise they will have to pay financial compensation. However, the company does not need to obtain the consent of its employees to stop production, because this is an abnormal business behavior beyond the control of the company, which can almost be regarded as force majeure. Therefore, the company only needs to notify the employees, obtain the consent of the trade union, and use solid evidence to prove that the enterprise really had to suspend work and production and it was not a fraudulent move. Afterwards they only need to finally file with the labor inspection unit as per the law, and pay wages in accordance with the minimum wage standard.

At this point in the case, no flaws can be found in Ji Lin’s process. It can be said that he had almost done everything he needed to do. Notify the union, and then negotiate to obtain the consent of the 189 employees who were supposed to be laid off. The man was so professional that Bai Duanduan barely had to think about it to know that she would not be able to find any loopholes in the process that she could use to overturn the situation.

There was no way to fight back in this case.

Because of Jilin’s operation, the company has exerted its dominant position in the labor market to the fullest. The workers were still incompetent to turn around, and Bai Duanduan only felt more panicked in her heart.

It was bad. It was really too bad. She said she wanted to protect the workers, but when she met Ji Lin, she was really crushed on the ground.

The only thing she can do now was to remind Song Lianjun and his group about the precautions to take during the shutdown, “Because Simon Paper is paying you the full minimum wage, you are still obliged to go if the company asks you to work temporarily. You can’t go without saying a word in order to express a protest, otherwise the company will record it as absenteeism. In the end, you will be unilaterally dismissed without the minimum wage.”

“In short, as long as you haven’t resigned and you are still receiving the average minimum wage provided by the company, then you must remember that you are still an employee of Simon Paper. You cannot commit any of the serious disciplinary offences mentioned in the employee handbook, nor can you commit any of the breaches of contract under the labour law.”

Song Lianjun’s face was blank. Bai Duanduan had cared for him a lot, but his expression was still somewhat oblivious, almost as if he was nodding subconsciously.

And it wasn’t until Bai Duanduan finished speaking that his eyes gradually gained focus. Then he looked at Du Xinyi and murmured, “Lawyer Du, you have to be responsible… you have to be responsible… You told me that we can definitely win this case and we will get compensation. You promised me!”

Bai Duanduan frowned, and only then did she have time to bother with Du Xinyi. She looked at her, “What did you promise? You promised a sure win, didn’t you?”

Du Xinyi’s eyes dodged, “Nothing, I just comforted him a few times and just said not to worry.”

From her behaviour it was obvious that she had promised a positive outcome to the other party. Bai Duanduan should have taken the opportunity to reprimand her. But at this moment, self-condemnation and shame attacked her completely, and Bai Duanduan was so upset that she didn’t want to say a word.

She was too weak, and her previous confidence in front of Ji Lin could really only be described as self-consciousness.

But work doesn’t give people time to lick their wounds alone. Soon, Ji Lin called on Bai Duanduan again, asking to check the financial compensation package for the remaining 189 people on the spot.

Bai Duanduan couldn’t help but rub her eyebrows and went back to the conference room with Ji Lin.

________________

Outside the conference room, only Song Lianjun and Du Xinyi were left.

Song Lianjun finally recovered from the tremendous shock, and then he looked at Du Xinyi, “Lawyer Du, you promised! Why aren’t you talking about this case? Shouldn’t you be arguing for us?”

Du Xinyi took a step back, then showed an embarrassed expression and began to shirk her responsibilities with a sincere face, “You also heard it, just now the opposing lawyer directly called me ‘assistant’. Let me be honest with you. Originally, this case was hosted by me and co-hosted by lawyer Bai, but she likes to grab the case for future sources. She wanted to handle it herself. She hides a lot of your information. Relying on her good relationship with our partners, she finally turned me into an assistant. If I had handled your case, we would have definitely won, not the result…”

The case was originally taken up by her because the amount of money involved was large enough to earn herself a lot of commission. Not to mention that by following Bai Duanduan, she didn’t have to do anything, so it was very easy. In addition, Du Xinyi always thought that the case could be won steadily, so she begged Lin Hui to let herself in, but now…