Oscar Wong
- A 41-year-old client manager was fired for browsing adult content at work, but said it wasn't him.
- The Shanghai man blamed a virus that infected his computer or his own colleagues, per the local court.
- He sued his employer for wrongful termination, and wanted $43,000 in damages.
A financial services worker in Shanghai who was fired for browsing pornographic websites at work has sued his former employer, blaming a virus that infected his computer.
The 41-year-old client relationship manager, identified by the municipal high court by his surname Yang, sought $43,000 in damages and said his contract was wrongfully terminated, authorities said in a report on Thursday.
Chinese courts do not typically name prosecutors and defendants in full for civil cases that are not high-profile.
Yang had worked for five years under his employer and earned about $2,360 a month until he was fired in August 2022, per the Shanghai High Court.
The average monthly salary in urban Shanghai was around $1,700 that year, according to the latest government statistics.
Yang's employer said that Yang had breached his contract — which prohibits employees from consuming pornography at work — by accessing "little movies" on his work computer. The term is a euphemism in China for explicit videos.
But Yang submitted company records that showed his colleagues often downloaded movies or shows on their work computers outside business hours. He said that this may have caused his computer to become infected by Trojan malware, per the court.
He also showed the court a photo of his office, which was an open space with no speakers, and said such a working environment was not conducive for consuming pornographic material, the report said. Yang said the "little movies" thus must have been watched by someone else.
Yang admitted to an adult site membership in his 'personal reflection'
Yang's employer, who was not named, fired back with internet records that showed the adult site browsing was performed while Yang sent files to colleagues and actively performed work tasks, indicating he was using the computer at the time, per the Shanghai court.
It also showed the court a transcript from a messaging chat group, where Yang wrote in a "personal reflection" submission to his boss that he had signed up for a membership on an adult content website and struggled with self-discipline.
In the reflection, Yang said he would have to repeatedly return to the website to click on links, allowing him to earn points and maintain his membership status, per the court.
Screenshot/Shanghai High Court
The Xuhui Court ruled that Yang clearly breached his contract and struck down his claim for $43,000.
But the now-fired client manager was awarded $1,090 for five days of paid leave that he didn't take in 2021, which Yang had included in his lawsuit, per the municipal court.
This isn't the first time Yang has sued his employer for the same firing. He tried to ask for $47,000 in damages in November 2022 but was only given $1,500 for leftover PTO that he didn't take that year, per the court.
In the US, the rise of remote work saw a striking increase in the number of employees using company devices to access adult websites. In 2020, the number of workers who admitted to such acts grew six-fold compared to 2019, according to a study by software company Netskope.
Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky reported that 51% of the 6,000 employees it surveyed in 2020 said they watched adult content on the devices they use for work.