A woman employed by John Deere in China was fired for storing porn in her work laptop. A Chaoyang arbitration committee ruled that the company must pay her 290,000 Yuan in compensation. The company refused to accept this and took the case to court.
In the first hearing of the case, the company argued that storing porn on a work computer is against the rules as stated in John Deere's employee handbook and code of conduct. Therefore, the company was entitled to terminate the woman's labor contract. The judge ruled that the company had the right to terminate the contact without compensation.
The woman, Zheng appealed the decision, arguing that the company did not give her any warning, room for repentance, or any other opportunities. This, she said, was in violation of labor contract law.
John Deere said that employees cannot use their allotted computer memory for files other than work files. In the second hearing, the court upheld the original ruling, siding with the company.
