Hospital head dismissed over layoffs

Wang Meiling has been removed from her post as head of Xianyang Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital in Shaanxi province, the Xianyang Municipal Health Commission said.

The commission recently investigated a labor dispute between the hospital and its employees in the wake of media reports that more than 40 medical personnel, most of whom had worked in the front line fighting COVID-19, had been laid off.

The workers said that instead of receiving subsidies for their work in fighting the epidemic, they were suddenly laid off after taking an exam that was used by the hospital to claim they were incompetent.

They did not see any document that justified dismissal, they said.

The investigation found that the decision to dismiss the medical workers violated the country's labor law and labor contract law. The hospital has been instructed to cancel the dismissals, the commission said.