A company in Guizhou province's capital city Guiyang has fired an employee for being a transgender man without giving him his salary.

The transman, identified as 28-year-old Chen, was fired last year after only one week in his job at Ciming Checkup. The company said that Chen, who comes to work wearing men's clothes as their health specialist, was "incompatible with the company's image."

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"If it was due to my ability and attitude at work, I would have accepted the dismissal but some staff called me gay and said that I ruined the image of the company, which was hard to take," Chen said.

Shanghai Daily reported that Chen has gone to the local arbitration commission to make the erring company compensate him for financial losses because of the abrupt dismissal. 

"Of course a company can fire its employees during the probation period if they cannot fulfil the job requirements, but the company should pay compensation in accordance with the Labor Law. If Chen was fired out of prejudice, it would be against the Contract Law," said Huang Sha, Chen's legal representative. 

Ciming Checkup

The company's head of human resources, who was only identified by the surname He, confirmed that Chen was fired because of incompatibility with the company's requirements, which was not clearly explained. 

"Chen looked like a man, but introduced himself as transgender, which shocked us a little," he said. 

Chen's co-workers were also disturbed by his sartorial choices.  

Jin, another company official, added that Chen's position as a health specialist required him to communicate frequently with senior executives of other companies. Jin said that this is the reason why there was a "high requirement on the image," adding that Chen's were not up to those standards. 

The issue quickly gained traction online, highlighting the alleged ostracism of the LGBT community in China. Many netizens have criticized the company's hiring process, questioning why they would accept Chen and suddenly firing him after a week. 

According to Jin, Chen was hired via an acquiantance, leading to the lack of scrutiny on his background.

TagsLGBT in China, transgender man in China fired, Ciming Checkup, LGBT community