"I will be fired for breaking the law now. Can you control me for breaking the law? Don't you understand human language?" Recently, a video of a female executive of a company firing an employee with an extremely arrogant attitude went viral on the Internet, triggering the outrage of many netizens and boosting many related topics to trending searches.
After the matter continued to ferment, many parties came forward to respond. Shougang Group denies that the woman involved is an employee or executive of Shougang Group. A company called Beijing Neox Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Neox") issued a statement stating that due to former employee Sun's incompetence, the company decided not to pass the probation period, and that the company had paid the November salary and severance compensation in full on December 8, 2023, in accordance with the agreement. As for Jing, the human resources employee involved, the company has currently suspended him.
Chen Moumou, chairman of the company involved, also said that the fired employee may be suspected of "falsifying academic qualifications and resumes". He has blackmailed many companies in the past and is a "repeat offender."
A netizen who claimed to be a party to the termination of the labor agreement in this incident also posted that the female executive Jing and the company's boss Chen were classmates at Tsinghua University. The two had a "strong relationship" and Jing's suspension was just a perfunctory one. However, the netizen’s identity and revelations have not yet been further confirmed.
According to Phoenix Finance, the person involved, Sun, said in an interview that the company took advantage of the fact that the probation period was about to end a few days ago and maliciously refused to expel the employee who passed the probation period. Those who were fired were mainly because they questioned the company's management and R&D processes, and opposed the company's use of pirated software to make chips. Chips produced by pirated software would have bugs, and the quality of the chips could not be guaranteed.
It is worth noting that Neox, which is at the center of the turmoil this time, is suspected to be related to another company called Beijing Pingxin Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Pingxin Technology"). The latter is a company focused on the research and application of AI chip memory computing technology. Tianyancha shows that although there is no direct equity relationship between the two companies, they do have many overlapping senior executives.
Radar Finance has learned that Pingxin Technology has received three rounds of financing so far, and Pingxin Technology’s official website shows that the company’s current team size is dozens of people, of which 80% are technical personnel, mostly from universities such as Tsinghua University and Peking University. However, Tianyancha shows that the number of insured persons in both Neox and Pingxin Technology is around 10. As the incident continues to unfold, Pingxin Technology’s official website is currently inaccessible.
A female executive illegally fired an employee and attracted onlookers, and Shougang almost took the blame.
"Now pack your things and leave immediately. I will revoke all your permissions and will not allow you to enter my company again. You can go and wait, and we will file the lawsuit slowly. I told you that I have many people waiting for you in the first and second trials of the labor arbitration. Try it, you can't find a job in two and a half years, don't think about looking for another job, I will have food next month. You can figure it out for yourself, you are as stubborn as me."
Recently, a video of a dispute between employees and company executives attracted a large number of netizens to watch on the Internet, and many related topics became hot searches. In the video, the female executive forcefully told the laid-off employees that she had been terminated illegally and was not afraid of lawsuits by the employees. She even threatened that the employees would not be able to find a job for two and a half years.
As public opinion continues to ferment, the outside world is discussing which company this female executive comes from, so that she has such a arrogant attitude. Initially, there were rumors on the Internet that the female executive was an employee of Shougang. However, the news was quickly refuted by Shougang Group.
On January 7, Shougang Group Co., Ltd. issued a statement on the news that "Beijing Shougang female executives illegally fired employees" spread online. Shougang Group said that after careful verification, the woman in the video posted online was not an employee or executive of Shougang Group, and the relevant incident had nothing to do with Shougang Group.
Subsequently, a company named Neox came out to "claim" this arrogant female executive. The company said in a statement released on January 8 that a video of a dispute between the company's human resources employee Jing and former employee Sun over the termination of the labor relationship recently appeared online. Jing became emotional and made inappropriate remarks, which caused extreme discomfort among netizens. We would like to sincerely apologize to everyone.
Neox also further explained the relevant situation: Sun, a former employee of the company, joined the company on June 25, 2023, and signed a three-year labor contract and confidentiality and non-competition agreement, with a probation period of 6 months. Because Sun was incompetent at work, the company decided not to pass the probation period.
However, unlike the fierce dispute scene in the video, Neox said that after consensus, the two parties signed a labor relationship termination agreement on December 1, 2023, and the company paid November wages and severance compensation in full on December 8, 2023 in accordance with the agreement.
Neox emphasized that the above procedures were handled in accordance with the law and the company always adheres to operating in accordance with the law. According to the company, the company has ordered human resources employee Jing to suspend his duties to reflect and deal with it seriously.
It was originally thought that the matter would come to an end, but the party suspected of being terminated from the labor agreement in the incident posted online on January 8 claiming that the company's suspension of Jing was just perfunctory, and he went back after a while.
The netizen even revealed other insider information about the "former employer", that is, he opposed the company's use of pirated software to design chips. He believes that chips designed by pirated software may have bugs and the quality cannot be guaranteed. In addition, this netizen believes that forging iron requires one's own hard work, and the reason why he was terminated from the contract is that he opposed the company's outsourcing of everything and was unwilling to accept the mercy of his superiors.
According to Sina Technology, on January 9, Chen Moumou, chairman of the company involved, once again responded to the controversy, "I can only say that the government has investigated this matter and the company's procedures are not flawed." Chen Moumou also said that the fired employee may be suspected of "falsifying academic qualifications and resumes". He has blackmailed many companies in the past and is a "repeat offender."
What is the origin of the company involved?
Neox, which has been involved in the whirlpool of public opinion this time, has been established for less than three years.Tianyancha shows that this company was established in April 2021 with a registered capital of US$11 million. It is a Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao legal person-owned limited liability company, and is wholly owned by Neonas Technology Co., Ltd.
The company's business scope includes technology development, technology consulting, technology exchange, technology transfer, technology promotion, and technical services; software development; basic software services; application software services; computer system services; sales of computers, software and auxiliary equipment, and self-developed products; integrated circuit design; and software consulting.
Yang serves as the legal representative, executive director, manager, financial person in charge of Nyox. In addition to serving at Neox, Yang also serves as executive director of Pingxin Technology. Zhang Moumou, who serves as a supervisor in Neox, is also the legal representative of Pingxin Technology and holds 100% of the shares of Pingxin Technology.
A media reporter visited Neox on the spot, and an employee of Apple Core Technology who was working on the same floor revealed to him that in fact the two companies are "kind of the same". The HR of both companies is Jing. After Jing was suspended, no one was responsible for the personnel work.
After the incident was exposed, some media noticed on the recruitment software that Pingxin Technology had a total of 15 positions open for recruitment, of which Jing was responsible for recruiting 10 positions. Just after the suspension announcement was released, Jing's recruitment status was still displayed as "active today." However, Radar Finance searched for keywords such as "Pingxin Technology" on the recruitment software on January 9, but no relevant results were found.
Radar Finance learned from the official website of Pingxin Technology that the company mainly focuses on the research and application of AI chip memory computing technology and creates differentiated solutions for partners. The multiple in-memory computing acceleration chips currently under development by the Apple Core Technology team will leverage their technical advantages of low cost, high efficiency, high performance, and low energy consumption in many industries such as energy, education, community, security, industry, and autonomous unmanned systems to empower the industrialization of AI.
On the recruitment page of the official website of Pingxin Technology Company, the talent concept of "Happy work, happy life" is clearly written. "Pingxin believes that every employee needs to find a balance between life and work. We provide generous salaries and a good working environment for our families. We cherish every wonderful idea and hope to turn them into reality."
In addition, Tianyancha shows that there are 7 companies with suspected relationships with Neox, such as Beijing Yiqi Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongfan Property Management Co., Ltd., Zhongshi Shangda (Beijing) International Culture Media Co., Ltd., etc. The suspicious points between these companies and Neox include "the same address" and "the same phone number."
The product marketing director of Pingxin Technology said in an interview with the media, "We did not handle this matter well. I can only tell you that (Sun) has a very, very big problem." However, the director said that it was not convenient to disclose the specific problem. "The whole process is quite complicated. It was really just a short clip of the video, and the result turned out like this." The director said that Jing has been suspended. As for whether he will be fired later, it still depends on the leadership arrangement.
On the morning of January 9, the person suspected of being fired told the media that until that day, the company and Jing still had a condescending attitude and did not apologize to him. His request was that Jing could apologize to him and "stop throwing dirty water."
With both sides insisting on their own opinions, the truth of this incident still needs further investigation. According to media reports, staff from the Human Resources and Social Security Department of Haidian District, Beijing, said that they have paid attention to this matter.
Although the truth of the matter has not yet fully come to light, according to veteran media person Hu Xijin, no matter who the person in the video is, or whether she is from a state-owned enterprise or a private enterprise, it is unacceptable to treat a fired employee so roughly.
Hu Xijin also said on Weibo that any state-owned enterprise will never allow a senior executive to treat a dismissed employee in such an attitude, regardless of whether there is a sufficient basis for dismissing the employee. Neither can private companies. You must not be arrogant in your life or in performing your duties. Even if you are justified, you must not be arrogant and break the laws and moral regulations. In the video, the behavior of female executives is unacceptable both legally and rationally. It is completely contrary to the provisions and spirit of the labor law.
Fu Jian, a lawyer at Henan Zejin Law Firm, believes that parties involved in the humiliating behavior of female executives can file a lawsuit. In addition, the "Labor Contract Law" stipulates that "during the probation period, the employer is unable to perform the job content" and the prerequisites for terminating the labor contract are: the employer is seriously incompetent for the position and is still incompetent after adjustment of positions and training, and the employer also needs to have sufficient evidence. Merely notifying that the employee is incompetent is illegal to terminate the labor contract, and illegal termination of the contract requires payment of compensation.
Pingxin Technology has received 3 rounds of financing, with only a dozen people participating in the insurance
It is worth mentioning that in a post posted by someone suspected of being involved in the incident, the netizen also pointed out that the female executive Jing graduated from Tsinghua University with a radio major in 1994, and was a classmate of Chen Moumou, the company’s boss and Duke University professor, at Tsinghua University. The two had a “strong relationship.”
However, Chen Moumou, chairman of Nyox, said in an interview with the media that he and Jing were not classmates in college, and he did not know about the incident at the time. "He also had no idea about this person's recruitment and resignation until someone forwarded the video to me."
According to an article published in August 2022 by the smart industry new media "Zhixixi", Chen and Neox's legal representative Yang are alumni of Tsinghua University. Chen graduated from the Department of Electronics and Yang graduated from the Department of Automation. Zhang, the legal representative of Pingxin Technology, is Chen's first doctoral graduate.
According to the official website of Pingxin Technology, the core members of the company's team are composed of master's, doctoral, and key laboratory scientific research talents from well-known domestic and foreign universities such as Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Peking University, Beihang University, Hsinchu Tsinghua University, etc.
Tianyancha shows that as of now, Pingxin Technology has received a total of 3 rounds of financing.In 2021, Pingxin Technology's angel round financing first received support from Puhua Capital and Sequoia China Seed Fund. Later, Pingxin Technology raised nearly 10 million US dollars in Pre-A round financing, and received support from Redpoint China, ZhenFund, and Sequoia China.
In 2022, Pingxin Technology completed another tens of millions of dollars in Series A financing. This round of financing was led by Primavera Ventures, and all old shareholders such as Redpoint China, Sequoia China, and Zhen Fund also participated in the investment. It is reported that the funds raised in this round will be mainly used to increase investment in technology and product research and development and accelerate the implementation of more application scenarios.
Up to now, Pingxin Technology has developed and implemented a variety of SRAM-based in-memory computing acceleration units, and is committed to providing low-cost, high-efficiency, low-energy consumption, and high-performance chip solutions for the artificial intelligence industry. At the same time, facing diversified scenarios, the company is also developing and utilizing new memory as the underlying technology to provide customers with convenient AI hardware acceleration solutions.
According to Pingxin Technology, the company’s existing team size is dozens of people, of which technical personnel account for 80%. The team has R&D centers and offices in Beijing, Hsinchu, Singapore and other places. However, Tianyancha annual report data shows that,The number of employees of Neox who will pay for the basic medical insurance for employees in 2022 is only 10, and the number of employees of Pingxin Technology who will pay for the basic pension insurance for urban employees in 2022 is only 12.
It is worth mentioning that at about 17:00 pm on January 9, when Radar Finance clicked on the official website of Pingxin Technology again, the webpage could no longer be accessed normally. The page displayed "Sorry! The site has been stopped by the administrator. Please contact the administrator for details!"