The correct way to open the "WeChat Moments Assessment System"
2025 01/24
Question raised
In order to promote the company's products and expand its sales scope, the senior management of a certain company has formulated a system that requires all employees of the company to repost relevant product information and promotional articles on their social media every day. Failure to repost without reason for a week will be considered a serious violation of discipline, and the company has the right to terminate the labor contract. Xiao Li, who is responsible for warehouse management in the company, thinks that product promotion is the job of salespeople and has nothing to do with his own work, so he ignored it. Unexpectedly, recently Xiao Li received a notice of termination from the company, citing a serious violation of the company's rules and regulations. Xiao Li believed that the company's termination was illegal, so he initiated labor dispute arbitration.
Lawyer analysis
The focus of this case is to determine whether there are any illegal or unreasonable situations in the rules and regulations.
1、 Rules and regulations should be formulated through democratic procedures and publicly announced or communicated to workers.
According to the provisions of the Labor Contract Law, when formulating, modifying or deciding on rules and regulations or major issues directly related to the vital interests of workers, such as labor remuneration, working hours, rest and vacation, labor discipline, and labor quota management, the employer shall discuss with the workers' congress or all employees, propose plans and opinions, and negotiate and determine them on an equal footing with the trade union or workers' representatives; Employers shall publicize or inform employees of rules, regulations, and major decisions that directly affect their immediate interests. It can be seen that rules and regulations should be formulated through democratic procedures and publicly disclosed or informed to employees in order to have legitimacy. Therefore, when a labor dispute occurs, the judicial authorities will review whether the procedures for formulating rules and regulations are legal and whether the workers have been informed.
2、 The content of rules and regulations should be reasonable.
The rules and regulations must be reasonable and cannot exceed the scope of labor management, infinitely expand, or even infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of workers. In practice, not all rules and regulations formulated through democratic procedures are reasonable for two reasons: firstly, due to the obvious subordinate nature of labor relations, employers are in a dominant position in the process of formulating and modifying rules and regulations, which may result in the content of rules and regulations being unreasonable; Secondly, when the company exercises its autonomy in business management, in order to meet the needs of production and operation, the content of rules and regulations is no longer limited to work-related matters. Sometimes, matters unrelated to employees' job positions and job content may be included in the rules and regulations, which may infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of employees. Therefore, when a labor dispute occurs, the judicial authorities will also review whether the content of the rules and regulations is reasonable.
Specifically in this case, WeChat is a personal social tool, and employees have the autonomy to decide on the relevant content to be posted on their Moments. The company should not intervene or enforce it. The company, based on rules and regulations formulated without democratic procedures, forces employees to post content promoting the company's products on WeChat Moments, and even punishes employees who fail to complete the posting of relevant content on Moments with the termination of their labor contracts. After trial, the court found that the company's rules and regulations were not formulated through democratic procedures and the content was unreasonable. Therefore, the court ruled that the company's termination of Xiao Li's labor contract was an illegal termination.
If the company needs to establish a "WeChat Moments Assessment System", its content should be reasonable, and its scope of application should be limited to employees related to their job positions, job content, and published content; From "mandatory and punitive regulations" to "encouragement and reward regulations", it is stipulated that those who complete the task of posting on WeChat Moments will be given certain rewards, rather than penalties such as salary deduction or termination of labor contracts for failure to complete. In this case, after the relevant system is formulated through democratic procedures and publicly announced and informed to employees, employees can switch from "forced forwarding" to "voluntary forwarding", thus avoiding disputes.
In order to promote the company's products and expand its sales scope, the senior management of a certain company has formulated a system that requires all employees of the company to repost relevant product information and promotional articles on their social media every day. Failure to repost without reason for a week will be considered a serious violation of discipline, and the company has the right to terminate the labor contract. Xiao Li, who is responsible for warehouse management in the company, thinks that product promotion is the job of salespeople and has nothing to do with his own work, so he ignored it. Unexpectedly, recently Xiao Li received a notice of termination from the company, citing a serious violation of the company's rules and regulations. Xiao Li believed that the company's termination was illegal, so he initiated labor dispute arbitration.
Lawyer analysis
The focus of this case is to determine whether there are any illegal or unreasonable situations in the rules and regulations.
1、 Rules and regulations should be formulated through democratic procedures and publicly announced or communicated to workers.
According to the provisions of the Labor Contract Law, when formulating, modifying or deciding on rules and regulations or major issues directly related to the vital interests of workers, such as labor remuneration, working hours, rest and vacation, labor discipline, and labor quota management, the employer shall discuss with the workers' congress or all employees, propose plans and opinions, and negotiate and determine them on an equal footing with the trade union or workers' representatives; Employers shall publicize or inform employees of rules, regulations, and major decisions that directly affect their immediate interests. It can be seen that rules and regulations should be formulated through democratic procedures and publicly disclosed or informed to employees in order to have legitimacy. Therefore, when a labor dispute occurs, the judicial authorities will review whether the procedures for formulating rules and regulations are legal and whether the workers have been informed.
2、 The content of rules and regulations should be reasonable.
The rules and regulations must be reasonable and cannot exceed the scope of labor management, infinitely expand, or even infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of workers. In practice, not all rules and regulations formulated through democratic procedures are reasonable for two reasons: firstly, due to the obvious subordinate nature of labor relations, employers are in a dominant position in the process of formulating and modifying rules and regulations, which may result in the content of rules and regulations being unreasonable; Secondly, when the company exercises its autonomy in business management, in order to meet the needs of production and operation, the content of rules and regulations is no longer limited to work-related matters. Sometimes, matters unrelated to employees' job positions and job content may be included in the rules and regulations, which may infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of employees. Therefore, when a labor dispute occurs, the judicial authorities will also review whether the content of the rules and regulations is reasonable.
Specifically in this case, WeChat is a personal social tool, and employees have the autonomy to decide on the relevant content to be posted on their Moments. The company should not intervene or enforce it. The company, based on rules and regulations formulated without democratic procedures, forces employees to post content promoting the company's products on WeChat Moments, and even punishes employees who fail to complete the posting of relevant content on Moments with the termination of their labor contracts. After trial, the court found that the company's rules and regulations were not formulated through democratic procedures and the content was unreasonable. Therefore, the court ruled that the company's termination of Xiao Li's labor contract was an illegal termination.
If the company needs to establish a "WeChat Moments Assessment System", its content should be reasonable, and its scope of application should be limited to employees related to their job positions, job content, and published content; From "mandatory and punitive regulations" to "encouragement and reward regulations", it is stipulated that those who complete the task of posting on WeChat Moments will be given certain rewards, rather than penalties such as salary deduction or termination of labor contracts for failure to complete. In this case, after the relevant system is formulated through democratic procedures and publicly announced and informed to employees, employees can switch from "forced forwarding" to "voluntary forwarding", thus avoiding disputes.
