In August 2014, Ms. Wang joined a well-known accounting firm in Beijing and signed an indefinite employment contract. By September 7, 2021, she submitted a resignation application to Fan, the company's legal representative, through WeChat, expressing her willingness to resign, and inquiring about the handover. Although Fan verbally replied at the time that it would take time to find a replacement, Ms. Wang continued to work after that.
It is worth noting that in the months following Ms. Wang's resignation report, i.e. from October 2021 to December 2021, the company continued to pay her salary on time. It was not until December 13, 2021 that the Company terminated the employment relationship between the two parties on the grounds of accepting Ms. Wang's resignation.
Dissatisfied with this decision, Ms. Wang filed an arbitration application, claiming that the company should pay a total of 960,000 yuan in compensation for illegal termination of the labor contract. The arbitration commission ruled that the company should pay 567,600 yuan in compensation, but the company did not accept this result and went to court.
The court of first instance held that although Ms. Wang clearly stated her intention to resign in early September 2021, the company did not respond in a timely manner and did not go through the resignation procedures, during which Ms. Wang was still performing her job duties normally. Nearly three months after Ms. Wang's resignation, the company suddenly announced that it agreed to her resignation and terminated the employment relationship, which not only exceeded the regular resignation approval period, but also showed a lack of reasonable goodwill to maintain the continuation of the employment relationship, so it was determined that the company had illegally terminated the employment contract.
In the second-instance stage, the company insisted that the two parties had agreed to terminate the employment relationship based on Ms. Wang's voluntary resignation and the company's consent, so there was no need to pay compensation for illegal termination of the labor contract. At the same time, it was argued that once Ms. Wang had served the notice of resignation, it could not be withdrawn.
However, the core issues that the court of second instance focused on in the trial were whether the company had illegally terminated the employment contract and whether it should pay compensation. The court held that although Ms. Wang submitted her resignation application, the company did not respond clearly at that time and continued to accept Ms. Wang's work contributions, which in fact constituted a denial of the consensus on the termination of the employment relationship, and the employment relationship between the parties continued to be valid during this period.
In response to the company's act of terminating the employment relationship three months after the resignation application was issued, the court of second instance pointed out that this clearly exceeded the reasonable time limit for processing the employee's resignation application, and did not meet the requirements of the Labor Contract Law that an employer can legally terminate an employment contract.
In the end, the court of second instance upheld the original judgment, confirmed that the company had indeed illegally terminated the labor contract, and ruled that Ms. Wang should be paid a total of RMB 567,600 in compensation for the illegal termination of the labor contract.
This case is instructive for the determination of employment relations in similar situations, that is, when an employee does not leave the company and continues to work normally after the expiration of the notice period, if the employer does not respond immediately and accept the resignation application, but formally terminates the employment relationship after a long period of time, it may be deemed to be illegally terminated and shall be liable for corresponding compensation.