Bab 8: Chapter 8 Is that it? I can do it too!
The courtroom was quiet, with Judgment Chief Old Zhou sitting above, struggling to suppress his laughter.
It's not that he's unprofessional, he just couldn't hold it in...
Especially that puzzled expression of his paired with that statement, really, no one here could keep a straight face.
Who said judges can't be entertainers? In fact, it's the judge's job that's particularly likely to encounter all sorts of amusement, and why is that? Because when you present evidence in court, you need to get into the details.
Particularly in divorce litigation, there are often some outrageous situations...
For instance, there was a case at the Guangming District Court, a divorce case, where the husband and wife were arguing in great detail about their marital life and the man's affair.
It's safe to say that if it weren't for the courtroom setting, it would be close to distributing obscene materials—anyway, much more than what many people have seen from Liu Beiwen...
The key was that they were asking for legal opinions while explaining, and the poor judge—a woman who's never been married—was shocked speechless but still had to provide judgments and mediations...
This young man is quite interesting, especially since he's not even a lawyer.
On one side, Supervisor Liu was getting anxious and whispered fiercely, "Elder Zhang, what's happening? Weren't we said to have the upper hand? How did it turn out like this!"
Elder Zhang's fists were clenched tight. He hadn't been doing litigation for a long time, and the lawyers he'd encountered usually just read their scripts, waited for the judgment, and then left.
He had never come across such a situation where someone would grab onto a loophole in your evidence and start pulling it towards other directions.
What's more critical is that he had just confidently claimed his professionalism and that the other side didn't understand, only to be directly contradicted now.
Forcing himself to be composed, Elder Zhang spoke up, "Next is evidence number two..."
As long as I don't take the bait, I can pretend nothing's wrong!
"This is a chat log, what the plaintiff claims to be evidence of overtime work. However, we can see that the so-called overtime is just the occasional reply to a customer in the group, which cannot possibly constitute as overtime."
Or rather, this is actually the core dispute in the case: whether communication after hours counts as overtime work!
Elder Zhang didn't think it did, so he didn't bother looking at the specific calculations. He just needed to prove that such communication wasn't overtime.
Meanwhile, Tang Fangjing spoke up again, "I have no objections to its authenticity, but I believe this piece of evidence can further prove that overtime work indeed took place."
"My job is in operations, I often need to interact with clients, and answering clients' questions in the group is certainly a work activity. Since this happens after regular working hours, I consider it to be overtime work."
That was Tang Fangjing's logic, as simple as it gets: has replying to WeChat after hours anything to do with work? Sure. Yet, it is not during working hours.
So, that's settled. If you're working outside of regular hours, then it's unreasonable to say that it isn't overtime!
"The court investigation is over; we will now begin the court debate," Old Zhou announced from above.
This was not just any situation, this was a total domination. Perhaps this time Bright District Court might set a guiding case!
Tang Fangjing spoke up, "The evidence I provided can prove that my use of social media for work outside of working hours goes beyond mere communication!"
"And this type of communication occurred almost daily, with a cyclical and regular nature, obviously taking up my rest time, so it should rightly be recognized as overtime!"
Elder Zhang was starting to feel nervous. This was different from what he had expected. The opponent's logic was extremely clear, leaving him at a loss for words.
But there was no helping it; he still had to speak.
"Our side... We believe that, as an employee of the operations department, it's not considered overtime for the company to just give Tang Fangjing a call. As for replying to messages in a WeChat group, it doesn't significantly encroach on the individual's rest time."
"Because he can do other things while replying to messages, it's obvious that it's impossible to do other things while working overtime."
"So it's not appropriate to consider after-hours communication as overtime..."
To this, Tang Fangjing countered, "Whether it's overtime or not should not be determined by whether other tasks can be done at the same time, but by whether the laborer has provided substantial labor content."
"And according to the chat records, on days where the time spent replying to messages after work exceeded three hours, the proportion was significant. Therefore, it can be fully determined that I have provided substantial labor content outside of work hours, and it should be recognized as overtime..."
Even Manager Liu felt that the other party seemed more professional now.
What Tang Fangjing meant was that the key point is whether you did the job or not. Even if you work while taking a dump, you are still working, and no one can deny that.
Elder Zhang began to repeat himself. Tang Fangjing, who had already sat down, no longer spoke and left it to others to say whatever they wanted.
After the courtroom debate ended, Old Zhou habitually asked, "Are both parties willing to accept mediation?"
Both parties expressed their unwillingness to accept mediation.
The collegial panel adjourned, and Elder Zhang, watching the Judgment Chief and the other two leave, immediately turned to Tang Fangjing and said, "What was your point just now, huh? Did I offend you or something? What do you mean my legal knowledge is from a sports college? Clarify your words!"
Regarding this, Tang Fangjing directly said, "This is how I do things. If you're standing opposite me in court, then you're the opponent. If you feel it's unjust, we can keep going and see if you really are from a sports college."
Elder Zhang wanted to say more but was stopped, only able to sit down sulkily with a red face.
He felt he had lost all face; what good does it do him to offend someone over just one lawsuit?
Manager Liu said nothing and tried to act professional, but that's nonsense. From start to finish, they were completely outplayed by the others... well, that's the best I could do...
After a long wait, finally, Old Zhou returned with a judgment document in hand, his expression somewhat complex.
It was expected that with this verdict, Bluebird Company would definitely appeal. If the second-instance judgment sent back for retrial or amended the decision, this year's reform rate would not look good...
But the judgment had to be made as it should be.
"The court finds that with economic development and advances in Internet technology, the working model of laborers has become increasingly flexible. They can provide labor anytime, anywhere through computers and mobile phones, and are not confined to the work locations or office spaces provided by employers."
"Especially for laborers who use social media like WeChat to carry out work outside of regular working hours and places, the issue of invisible overtime is not uncommon, and one cannot simply deny overtime because the labor did not occur at the employer's workplace..."
"And according to the chat records, it can be determined that Tang Fangjing engaged in work through social media after hours, which exceeds the occasional and temporary normal communication..."
"Considering that overtime through social media differs from traditional overtime and that the duration is difficult to quantify objectively, it would be unfair to take the full duration as overtime... Bluebird Company is hereby ordered to pay Tang Fangjing an overtime compensation of six hundred thousand yuan."
With the judgment concluded, Manager Liu's face turned extremely ugly—six hundred thousand yuan was at stake!
Moreover, their company had always treated its employees like beasts of burden. If everyone were to sue, that would be disastrous!
"That's not right, your judgment is unfair, there's no way this is acceptable, we want to appeal!"
On Tang Fangjing's side, however, he remained calm. This, after all, was the status quo. Although he had calculated everything, the court would still make discretionary decisions, and this had been the result after the second-instance trial in his past life.
Indeed, calculating overtime hours through chat records is not very fair...
He himself would not appeal; the current result was sufficient to ensure the completion rate reached two hundred percent, and all that was left was to wait for the second-instance trial.
Anyway, he still had to report to the labor inspection department. Regardless of the outcome there, it would be enough.
The fines plus compensation, comfortable indeed.
Hadiah
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