Chinese court upholds dismissal of engineer over excessive bathroom breaks

An engineer in China has been dismissed from his job for taking unusually long bathroom breaks, a decision later upheld by a court.

According to reports, the engineer, employed at a company in the eastern province of Jiangsu, repeatedly took extended bathroom breaks during working hours. On several occasions, the total time exceeded one hour, while on one instance he remained away for nearly four hours.

The company relied on CCTV surveillance footage to demonstrate that the employee was frequently absent from his workstation for prolonged periods.

The employee claimed that the delays were due to bleeding haemorrhoids.

The company stated that the employee, identified as Li, had repeatedly left his post during working hours without permission, in violation of his labour contract and internal regulations.

It added that he had neither informed the company in advance about any medical condition nor applied for sick leave, as required under the terms of his contract.

Li later filed a lawsuit seeking compensation of 320,000 yuan.

However, the court ruled that the time spent in the bathroom was “far beyond normal physiological needs” and found the company’s decision to terminate his employment to be lawful.

Subsequently, following mediation, the ruling was partially adjusted. Taking into account the employee’s length of service and his unemployment, the company agreed to provide around 30,000 yuan as relief payment.