On October 31, a court in Tongzhou recently revealed a college graduate was sued for RMB310,000 by his former employer in September 2016 for breach of contract.
Back in August 2015, Liang started working for a school in Beijing as a physics teacher. His contract date stretched from August 1, 2015, to July 31, 2022.
He left his teaching position after just one year of his seven-year contract to pursue another line of work. When he failed to show up to work for the new school year in September 2016, his employer brought the work dispute to court, demanding Liang pay RMB110,000 for breaking his contract and a RMB200,000 fee for registering him as a ‘talented worker,’ which helped secure a coveted Beijing hukou.
The court opted in favor of the school, which caused Liang to file a lawsuit immediately after. He argued that his ‘talented worker’ registration was not listed in the contract. He also claimed that RMB110,000 was an excessive amount to payback and significantly more than the salary he earned during his tenure.
Image via @北京晚报/Weibo
After listening to his case, the court decided that both parties had a clear and definite understanding of the contract and that the defendant should have known the repercussions of breaking the agreement.
After Liang’s story came to light, it was one of Weibo's top trending news stories on Thursday, November 1. But netizens were less focused on Liang’s court case than the real topic at hand: Beijing hukou.
"Will his hukou be cancelled? Is a Beijing hukou worth RMB310,000?" wrote one netizen, with others expressing concern over the state of China's hukou system.
The hukou system is the government’s household registration program, which can either work in your favor or be a hindrance, depending on where you are registered. For example, having a Beijing hukou gives citizens access to a variety of social services in the city.
If you work in a city where you don’t have a local hukou, life can very quickly become inconvenient. For many graduating college students in Beijing, finding a job they like that will also provide a hukou in the capital is a rarity.
Back in April, the Beijing government launched a new point-based hukou program, accepting applications for Beijing residents without a local hukou. Over 124,000 indivduals applied during the two-month application window and received a point score, which ultimately decided their hukou fate. According to Ecns.cn, Beijing's pilot program quota for new hukou holders is 6,000 per year.
Bustling Beijing at night. Image via Zhang Kaiyv/Unsplash
While the government continues to work on registration reform, employees and employers in the capital city find themselves in a precarious position. One Weibo user posted about Liang’s story, writing “Companies who provide a local hukou are used as a springboard. This has always been the case, with most companies doing little about it. I’m guessing this school was really fed up.”
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