Recently, a video of "a female executive of the company illegally fired an employee" detonated social networks. Subsequently, the company involved, Beijing Neox Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Neox"), responded that the human resource employee Jing was emotional and made inappropriate remarks, and he had been ordered to suspend his job for reflection and serious treatment. The dismissed employee in the video failed to pass the 6-month probationary period due to incompetence, and the procedures were handled in accordance with the law.
However, the incident continues to ferment. On January 9, some media reported that Chen Yiran, the chairman of the company involved, responded that the dismissed employees may be suspected of "falsifying academic qualifications and resumes", and had previously falsely accused many companies all the way and was "habitual offenders". In this regard, the employee Sun denied this statement in an interview with the reporter of "Daily Economic News".
On January 10, it was reported that Sun had transferred at least 7 chip companies from 2020 to the end of 2023, and almost every time he was dismissed during the probationary period, in addition to 2 unsuccessful job searches due to unqualified background adjustments. Sun responded to reporters that among the aforementioned companies, "some names I have heard for the first time."
In addition, the reporter noticed that this incident also implicated another company, namely Beijing Pingxin Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Pingxin Technology"), which has many related relationships with Neox, and has a halo such as "Tsinghua Senior Brothers Team Up to Start a Business" and "2023 China's Top 10 AI Chip Cutting-edge Enterprises". On the evening of January 9, when the reporter tried to open the official website of Pingxin Technology, he found that the site had been stopped by the administrator. How many mysteries are there behind a layoff that is known all over the Internet?
The employee concerned: The "dismissal incident" has a great impact on him
"I'm going to break the law now, and you go sue me. I told you, the first and second instance of labor arbitration, I have someone waiting for you slowly. ”
Screenshot of the video
Recently, a video of "the company's female executives illegally fired employees" and derivative topics occupied the hot search on social media. According to the previously circulated video, the woman in the picture said that she (is) illegally terminated (the labor contract) and was not afraid of being laid off to apply for labor arbitration, which attracted widespread attention from netizens.
Image source: Social media screenshot
On January 9, a reporter from "Daily Economic News" contacted Sun, a laid-off employee in the video, by phone.
Recalling the process of video fermentation, Sun said that on the day of the dismissal, Jing (the executive in the dismissal incident) called the police and told the police that she was the person in charge of the company. "The police wanted to kick me out, so I showed the video to the police and forwarded the video to the company group. I don't know who posted it on the Internet again. ”
According to Sun, he was also asked to sign a letter of apology when he left the company.
"I don't know what to do with it, so I just took out a printed apology letter written in my voice, and then asked me to sign and press my fingerprint, otherwise I won't get my salary that month. ”
Sun said that he has not yet received an official resignation certificate. As the year approaches, Sun's next plan is to find a job. However, he also bluntly said that the "dismissal" incident had a great impact on him, and "if I can't do it, I can only go back to my hometown."
Detective: There is no such "company" in the registered place of Neox
Due to the inability to get in touch with the company involved by phone, email, etc., on the afternoon of January 8, the reporter of "Daily Economic News" came to the registered place of the company Neoux, Danling Street, Haidian District, Beijing, which is also the location of Chuangfu Building. However, the floor catalogue published in the lobby of the building does not include Neox.
The corporate guidance board of Chuangfu Building, the registered address of Neox is shown as another companyImage source: Photo by intern reporter Yu Yilang
Two staff members of a nearby company told reporters: "It (Niox) is only registered here, but the company is not here." You can look up another company that doesn't know the exact address. The reporter learned that the other company mentioned by the staff member is Pingxin Technology, and the two companies have many related relationships.
Subsequently, the reporter came to the public address of Pingxin Technology, which is the Zhiyuan Building. At the entrance of the Chilcii Building, a number of people who claimed to be employees of other companies in the building said that [Pingxin Technology] was indeed here, "and it used to be listed, but then it was long gone."
The front desk staff of Zhiyuan Building also confirmed that Pingxin Technology is working here. "[Pingxin] is based on this area, but not a customer of our property. As for whether Neox is also working here, the staff member said it is not clear. On January 8, the reporter called the public phone number of Pingxin Technology and Neox several times, but could not be connected. As of press time, there has been no reply to the interview email.
In the early morning of January 8, Neox issued a statement in Beijing Daily on the online video, saying: Recently, a video of a dispute between the company's human resources employee Jing and former employee Sun appeared on the Internet due to the termination of labor relations. The company has ordered him to suspend his job for reflection and take serious action.
According to Neox's statement, Sun joined Neox on June 25, 2023, with a probationary period of 6 months. Neox said in a statement that the company decided not to pass the probationary period because Sun was incompetent to work. On December 1, 2023, the two parties signed an agreement on the termination of labor relations, and Neox paid the full amount of November wages and severance compensation on December 8, 2023, and the above procedures were handled in accordance with the law.
According to Wang Longguo, a lawyer at Shanghai Shenyihe Law Firm, the termination of labor relations by companies on the grounds that the probationary period is not qualified is a frequent type of labor contract dispute, and it is usually very difficult for employees to protect their rights through arbitration or litigation in such disputes. "Theoretically, the company can agree with the employee on the conditions of the probationary period assessment, and if the assessment fails, the company can terminate the employment relationship. However, the issue of controversy in practice is not here, but whether the probationary period assessment criteria have been agreed, or whether there are clear probationary period assessment standards. ”
"In the absence of a clear agreement on the evaluation criteria for the probationary period, it would be very subjective to look at whether the probationary period is qualified after a dispute arises. At this time, it is often 'the public says that the public is reasonable, and the mother-in-law says that the mother-in-law is reasonable'. As to whether the termination of the employment relationship constitutes an illegal termination, the judgment on this issue is not whether the executive's remarks violate labor laws and regulations, but whether the company's termination violates labor laws and regulations. ”
Mr. Wang said it was not certain from the executive's remarks that the company had violated the law. However, regardless of whether the company constituted an illegal termination of the employment relationship, the remarks of the executives on the Internet were obviously inappropriate.
The official website of the affiliated company has been shut down
Where did Pingxin Technology and Neox come from, and why were the two companies involved?
The reporter of "Daily Economic News" noticed that there are two key figures who connect the above two companies, among them, Zhang Yaojun is not only the manager and legal representative of Ping Xin Technology, but also the supervisor of Neox, while Yang Yue is the manager, financial director, executive director and other positions of Neoux, he is also the executive director of Ping Xin Technology. In addition, Zhang Yaojun also pledged his 1,500 shares of Apple Core Technology to Neox.
According to Sun, Yang Yue was his junior high school classmate, and he first joined the company to "see Yang Yue's face". As for the relationship between the above two companies, Sun said: "They have several bosses, such as Yang Yue is the boss of Neox, and then there is the boss of Pingxin named Zhang Yaojun, in fact, they usually sit together, they are all next to each other, but they have registered several names." According to Sun, Yang Yue is not a Chinese national, and it is inconvenient to register a company in the mainland, so he registered a Hong Kong-funded company, Neox.
What is the origin of Pingxin Technology?
According to the official WeChat official account of Pingxin Technology, the company was founded in 2021 and focuses on the research and application of integrated storage and computing chips. In 2023, Pingxin Technology was also selected as the "2023 Top 10 Cutting-edge AI Chip Enterprises in China".
In terms of the management team, according to Yang Yue's previous interview, the core team of Pingxin Technology is composed of Chen Yiran, Yang Yue, Zhang Yaojun, and Xu Zhenlong. Among them, Chen Yiran and Yang Yue are alumni of Tsinghua University, Chen Yiran graduated from the Department of Electronics, Yang Yue graduated from the Department of Automation, Zhang Yaojun is Chen Yiran's first doctoral graduate, and Xu Zhenlong has worked in TSMC for many years. Chen Yiran served as the company's chairman, CEO Yang Yue and CTO Zhang Yaojun set up the initial team of Ping Core in Beijing, responsible for the research and development of the entire system, and Xu Zhenlong was responsible for building the core of in-memory computing.
However, Sun revealed that Zhang Yaojun has been replaced, and his departure is also related to the company's high-level infighting. He said that when he first joined the company, Zhang Yaojun was in power, and later the company began high-level "infighting", and after the eleventh day in 2023, Zhang Yaojun "abdicated", and the real power was held by another person.
From the perspective of the company's employee structure, according to Zhang Yaojun's statement when he participated in a roadshow project of an entrepreneurship competition in 2023 to introduce the company, his team has nearly 50 core engineers, most of whom graduated from well-known universities. According to the official website of Pingxin Technology, the company's existing team size is dozens of people, of which 80% are technicians. However, according to the 2022 annual report of Ping Chip, the number of social security paid by Ping Chip Technology that year was only 12.
Image source: Screenshot of the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System
Talking about the reason for the infighting, Sun said that Pingxin Technology has been established for three years but its development is slow, and Yang Yue wants to change the status quo. "The life cycle of chip companies is inherently short, and the competition is very fierce, and some companies may not have it in 3-5 years. Normal company financing is very fast, but Ping Core has only had a round A since its establishment three years ago, and it has no business capacity, and so far the chips have not been mass-produced and cannot be sold. ”
According to the official WeChat official account of Pingxin Technology, the company focuses on the research and application of integrated storage and computing chips, with the goal of leading the construction of a non-Feng architecture computing system and ecosystem, and providing partners with low-power, high-efficiency, small-area, and easy-to-deploy chips and solutions.
Image source: Screenshot of Pingxin Technology's official WeChat
On the evening of January 9, when the reporter tried to open the official website of Pingxin Technology again, he found that the site had been stopped by the administrator, and the official website URL of the official WeChat link could not be opened.
What is the cause of the conflict?
"In fact, [Pingxin Technology's] core business has been outsourced. Sun said that usually chip companies outsource services or some "corner business". "It also outsources the core design business, and the design chips are outsourced, so what other chips do you have?"
Talking about the company's use of pirated software mentioned in the previous interview, Sun said that pirated software is not office software such as Office used on ordinary personal computers, but professional chip design tools, and the price is very expensive, and an emulator may cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
"Apple Core stole a variety of these chip tools. In this way, first, there is a risk, the chip may have bugs (loopholes), and second, in this way, several chips have not paid intellectual property fees at all, this thing must not be relied on, and someone (will) come out to take responsibility. ”
Sun recalled that the cause of his conflict with the company was that he asked for a weekly meeting with the outsourced staff to check the progress, but was refused. "(Ping Core) said that he was afraid of disturbing outsourcing, and outsourcing also has a personal life, so he used his weekends and evenings to help Apple Core. How can you make a good chip? I was fired for these things, not because they said they were incompetent. ”
On the evening of January 9, regarding Sun's aforementioned content, the reporter sent an interview email to the email address announced by Pingxin Technology and Neox, but as of press time, no response has been received. The reporter also failed to get in touch with the company involved and the relevant executives, and could not verify the content of Sun's statement with the company involved and relevant people.
Accused of being a "chip judge" employee who frequently changes jobs: nonsense
As the incident fermented, on January 9, some media reported that Chen Yiran, the chairman of the company involved, responded that the fired employees may be suspected of "academic fraud and resume fraud", and they had previously falsely accused many companies all the way and were "habitual offenders".
Talking about the alleged fraud of academic qualifications, Sun bluntly said that his academic qualifications are not very high (not doctors, famous schools), and there is nothing to fake. "Besides, I've been working for 20 years, and I've jumped to many companies, if my academic qualifications are fake, why didn't I find out until Chen Yiran? ”
"Later, he said that (I) stole the work of my subordinates and said that I didn't work. What I was given was a management post, taking a few people to work, and I also built the environment and framework, and taught them how to do it by hand. It's ridiculous that I'm a member of my team, so how can I steal it? ”
However, on January 10, public opinion broke out again.
It is reported that Sun has transferred at least 7 chip companies from 2020 to the end of 2023, and almost every time he was dismissed during the probation period, in addition to 2 unsuccessful job searches due to unqualified background adjustments, and 4 jobs in 2022.
On the afternoon of January 10, the reporter of "Daily Economic News" contacted Sun again to ask whether the above content was true.
Sun responded that the online articles listing his frequent job-hopping and encountering Chinese executives were "boring stuff." The reporter noticed that a series of company names were listed in the relevant articles, saying that Sun had worked in these companies. In this regard, Sun told reporters on the phone: "I have heard some (company) names for the first time, what can this say, I think it is nonsense." ”
(Intern Wang Kexin also contributed to this article)
National Business Daily