Zhang Qian

    zhqcindy@163.com

    A FOREIGN teacher from New Zealand has won a lawsuit against a Nanshan high school. Gregory Sharpan has been awarded over 69,000 yuan (US$10,952) in back pay after successfully arguing in three separate court hearings that he was unfairly dismissed from his job.

    “I finally got justice with the help of my Chinese lawyer,” said Sharpan, who had been teaching business and economics. “Many foreigners do not know that they can actually count on the local labor law to protect their rights.”

    The Nanshan Chinese International College, which is actually a high school, said it dismissed Sharpan because he had been spreading rumors and had failed to follow the school’s curriculum.

    Sharpan had faced the school in court three times and the court found in favor of Sharpan each time, but the school appealed twice. In the last hearing, the judge sustained the original verdict, saying that the school did not prove Sharpan had broken his contract.

    The school was ordered to compensate Sharpan for a loss of salary amounting to 82,327 yuan within five days of the final verdict, which was issued June 8.

    Sharpan started to work for the school Feb. 17, 2013. Sharpan and the school signed labor contracts twice with the period of the last contract from Aug. 1, 2013 to July 31, 2014.

    His monthly wage was 26,750 yuan, including a basic salary and housing allowance.

    Sharpan was dismissed Feb. 14 last year, with the school accusing him of spreading negative rumors about colleagues and the school, failing to establish good relationships with his colleagues and refusing to fulfill his contractual obligations.

    Sharpan denies the accusations. He also said that the school refused to purchase health insurance for him, refused to pay him overtime for working nights and weekends, and refused to grant him paternity leave when his wife was nine months pregnant.

    Sharpan said that one of his former colleagues, Cyrille Flitti, has also won a case against the school for unpaid wages.

    Sharpan received 69,110 yuan from the school Friday, but the amount is more than 13,000 less than what the court had ordered.

    “The school said it was because the part of the compensation was for tax,” Sharpan said.

    Despite winning the case, Sharpan is not satisfied with the money he received. He believes he should receive six months worth of salary and not the three months that the school has provided.

    Sharpan only received three months of salary because the first hearing was held in April and the court could only require the school to compensate him for February, March and April.

    Sharpan plans to file another lawsuit against the school for the salary of the other three months.