Ladies Protest Discrimination against Pregnant Employees

Young women wore fake pregnant belly prosthetics and staged a protest in front of the office of a well-known group purchasing website in Beijing on June 18, 2013, to support the rights of a pregnant employee who was recently fired by the company. The women distributed letters in front of the offices of Meituan.com, appealing to pregnant employees to stand up for their own rights in response to the firing of Meituan employee Bao Yating. Bao began working at Meituan.com in May 2011. In March this year, she became pregnant and informed her boss. When she was asked to work overtime, she applied to the company for permission not to work overtime in consideration of her pregnancy, but the company refused. She went to the media in the hopes of drawing the company’s attention to her problem. Instead, the company fired her without compensation. Bao has since turned to non-governmental organizations for legal aid. “Many pregnant women choose to keep silent when they suffer from undue pressure from their employers. I am determined to fight for their rights and interests,” she said. Bao submitted an application for arbitration to the Haidian District Arbitration Committee for Labor Disputes on June 4, 2013 and the case has been officially accepted.