(ECNS) -- China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group said on Tuesday that four of its employees at the security department had been sacked for cheating during an internal sale of mooncakes, Beijing Youth Daily reports.
On September 12, Alibaba put the company's surplus mooncakes on sale on the company's internal site at cost price for all employees, and a temporary page was developed for that purpose.
However, four of its security department employees had written computer programs to help them snap up 124 more boxes of mooncakes than the number allowed by the company.
In response to online discussions about the incident, Alibaba said on Tuesday afternoon that the four employees "cheated by technological means and snapped up 124 extra boxes of mooncakes." The company "decided to let them go," because "the security department employees, as defenders of company rules, breached their duty by cheating with tools, thus touching the integrity and honesty bottom line."
One of the employees involved in the incident explained in an online post that he wrote a short JavaScript program to help him make the purchase, after failing to secure any on the designated page after the sale began on Monday. He eventually booked 16 boxes, but found payment had not been made, so he rang the company's administrative department and requested a withdrawal of the bookings. But he was taken by surprise on that same afternoon, when the department had talks with him and several other employees, telling them to leave.
Han Xiao, a Beijing-based lawyer, said China's Labor Contract Law does not contain a stipulation that justifies companies' unilateral termination of labor contracts with employees by citing dishonesty reasons.
However, the law does allow a company to do so if the employee's behavior proves to be in severe breach of company rules, it was added.
All four employees have ended their contracts and are will soon leave the company, the paper reported.
