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Fran Lu

A company in China has been told off by officials after it issued a notice threatening to fire its single and divorced employees if they remain single by the end of September.
The Shuntian Chemical Group in eastern China’s Shandong province, which employs more than 1,200 people, announced a policy that vows to boost the company’s marriage rate in January.
It requires its single and divorced employees between the ages of 28 and 58 to “get married and settle down” by the end of September this year.
Those who do not by the end of March need to write a self-criticism letter.
If they do not get married by the end of June, the company will conduct an “evaluation” of them. If they are still single by the end of September, they will be fired.

The company has also endorsed a policy which stresses traditional Chinese values such as loyalty and filial piety.
“Not responding to the government’s call to improve the marriage rate is disloyal. Not listening to your parents is not filial. Letting yourself be single is not benevolent. Failing your colleagues’ expectations is unjust,” the announcement said.
The company was founded in 2001, and was one of the top 50 enterprises in the city of Linyi where it is based.
The local human resources and social security bureau told The Beijing News that it inspected the company on February 13, and in less than a day, the company said it had withdrawn the policy.
No personnel had been fired because of their marital status.
One online observer said: “This crazy company should mind its own business and stay away from the personal lives of employees.”
“Let them carry out the policy. Those fired can simply apply for arbitration and get a good amount of compensation,” said another.
“Will they punish married employees for not having a child?” a third person said.
A member of staff with the government said the company’s notice violated China’s Labour Law and Labour Contract Law.
Associate professor at Peking University Law School, Yan Tian, told the Beijing News that the policy was against the freedom of marriage and therefore unconstitutional.
Yan said that Chinese companies are not supposed to ask job applicants for marriage or childbirth plans under labour laws, although it was usually not the case in reality.
The number of marriages in China dropped to a new low of 6.1 million last year, a 20.5 per cent drop from 7.68 million the year before.

China recorded 9.54 million newborns last year, an increase of 520,000 from 2023. It was the index’s first rise since 2017.
However, a demographer with China’s YuWa Population Research Institute, He Yafu, said the rise was only due to many families favouring children born in the Year of the Dragon.
Young people’s lack of interest in marriage even prompted some governments to incentivise tying the knot.
A city in central China’s Shanxi province offered a 1,500 yuan (US$200) reward to women under 35 and men who both get married for the first time.


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Firm receives reprimand from authorities for threatening to impose sanctions on unmarried staff, forces single employees into ‘self-criticism’


Firm receives reprimand from authorities for threatening to impose sanctions on unmarried staff, forces single employees into ‘self-criticism’.


Peking University