A Pudong court has ordered a company to pay its former employee 194,000 yuan (US$30,000) in compensation after he was fired for refusing to work during Spring Festival in 2019.

The employee surnamed Zhang had worked for the company as a software engineer for four years. In 2019, he took leave for 27 consecutive days, including the Spring Festival holiday and annual leave.

The firm asked Zhang to take his laptop home over the holiday, because it claimed customers may need emergency services.

Zhang refused saying he needed to spend time with his family and had no obligation to work during that time.

After labor arbitration, authorities ruled that the company had to compensate Zhang for illegally terminating his contract, after which the company took him to court.

The Pudong court determined that the arbitration result was reasonable. It said although it was understandable that the company asked Zhang to work during an emergency, he was under no obligation to do so during his time off.