Chinese court says transgender man was fired unjustifiably

BEIJING — In what has been described as China’s first case involving transgender discrimination in the workplace, a court in the south-western province of Guizhou has ruled that the plaintiff was illegally fired but that there was no proof that his dismissal was a result of bias against transgender people.

“We found this a little bit of a shame,” the lawyer Huang Sha, for the plaintiff, a 28-year-old transgender man who has been identified in the state news media only as “Mr C” and who has declined to provide his real name to protect his privacy, said in a telephone interview.

Mr C, who was born a woman but says he has long considered himself a man, was dismissed from the Ciming Health Checkup Centre in Guiyang, the provincial capital, in April 2015 after a one-week probation. In March 2016, Mr C filed his case with a local labour arbitration committee asking for compensation and a written apology. Mr C said in an interview in April that the company’s human resources manager had complained that he dressed like a gay man and looked too “unhealthy” to be an employee for a health checkup company.

In May, the arbitration committee ordered the company to pay Mr C 402.30 renminbi (S$84), for the probation period, but rejected his demand for an additional month’s pay of 2,000 renminbi and an apology. He and his lawyer then brought the case to court.

The court held its first hearing in June but adjourned when his lawyer demanded an examination of two documents that the company had submitted as evidence Mr C had been fired for poor performance, failing to dress according to company standards and missing work.

The court’s ruling was issued Dec 30.

The lawyer said the court concluded the company had failed to prove that it had fired Mr C for reasons permitted as grounds for dismissal under labour law and ordered the company to pay Mr C the 2,000 renminbi in compensation. But the court also said there was no proof Mr C’s termination had resulted from the company’s discriminatory attitude toward transgender people and did not grant Mr C’s demand for an apology. THE NEW YORK TIMES