Asian Tech Press (Mar. 28) -- Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp (1810. HK) lost the final trial in the case of dismissing an employee for her incompetence.

The second trial verdict on the labor dispute between Xiaomi and a former employee was made public by the "Beijing Court Trial Information Network" on March 22, showing that the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court upheld the preliminary ruling and Xiaomi was required to continue to perform the labor contract with the employee.

The employee, surnamed He, joined Xiaomi on May 27, 2019, and the two parties signed an employment contract for the period until May 31, 2022.

The female employee failed to meet the assessment standards on September 30, 2020, and Xiaomi issued a written notice of termination of employment contract to her on November 3, 2020, informing the parties that the employment contract was terminated on November 6, 2020, which was a legal termination.

The employee was not convinced and filed an arbitration with the Beijing Haidian Labor and Personnel Dispute Arbitration Commission, which ruled that Xiaomi continued to perform the labor contract with her.

Xiaomi appealed to the Beijing Haidian People's Court against the arbitral award.

The preliminary hearing concluded that without training or transfer of the employee, Xiaomi's termination of the labor contract directly is illegal, and ruled that the company should continue to perform the labor contract with He.

Xiaomi claimed that due to He's low performance appraisal score, she was unable to do her job, and informed the employee on November 4, 2020 that her improvement plan was not up to standard, which was equivalent to her inability to do her job even after training.