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Recently, a netizen broke the news that an employee of Zhuyou Zhizao Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. in Changsha, Hunan Province, died suddenly in the company park, and the company has not yet given any advice on how to deal with the situation. On the afternoon of the 25th, a reporter from Xinhuanghe contacted the employee's wife, Ms. Hu. According to Ms. Hu, her husband, Mr. Tuo, collapsed and died on his way from the company building to the parking lot after clocking out at the company at around 6 pm on August 20. The police determined the cause of death to be "sudden death." "He worked overtime irregularly during his lifetime, and the company still owed him wages after his death. Only after I pursued it did they reissue part of it. We have not yet reached an agreement on funeral expenses." Ms. Hu said.

New Yellow River reporter contacted Mr. Liu, the person in charge of the company. Mr. Liu said that after the incident, the company had been negotiating with Mr. Tuo's family on compensation, but the two sides could not reach an agreement on the amount of compensation. Whether Mr. Tuo's death was recognized as a work-related injury still needs to be further determined by the relevant departments. Regarding Mr. Tuo's salary that was owed, the person in charge said that it had been fully paid on August 23.

This incident also attracted the attention of netizens: Can sudden death in the company park after get off work be considered a work-related injury?

A 48-year-old man died suddenly in the company. His family said he worked overtime irregularly before his death.

According to Mr. Tuo's wife, Ms. Hu, Mr. Tuo is 48 years old and is an ordinary employee of Zhuyou Zhizao Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., mainly responsible for managing the database. At about 6 pm on August 20, after punching in and leaving the company building, he suddenly fell to the ground on his way to the parking lot. Someone passed by and called the police, but when the ambulance arrived, Mr. Tuo had already lost vital signs.

According to the death certificate issued by the police and provided by Ms. Hu, the cause of Mr. Tuo's death was "sudden death" and the place of death was in the company's park. "I wanted to check the surveillance, but the company said that the surveillance broke down on August 3, so there was no surveillance content at that time." Ms. Hu said that her husband had worked in the company for 9 years, and his main job was data management. He used to work overtime at irregular intervals. "The company also owed him 4 months' salary." Ms. Hu said that after her husband passed away, she asked the company to reimburse her husband's salary, but the company only reimbursed part of it. "No funeral expenses have been paid so far. Later, the street office intervened and the company sent people to negotiate, but still no agreement was reached."

The company responded: The wages have been settled, but no agreement has been reached on compensation.

On the afternoon of August 25, a reporter from Xin Huanghe called Mr. Liu, the person in charge of Changsha Zhuyou Intelligent Manufacturing Company. According to Mr. Liu, after the incident, he was one of the company staff members who came forward to handle Mr. Tuo's funeral and compensation issues, and was responsible for negotiating with Mr. Tuo's family, but the two sides failed to reach an agreement on the amount of compensation.

"We have been negotiating about compensation since the second day of the incident, and the negotiations lasted until the early morning of Friday. However, the 1 million yuan compensation proposed by the family was a large amount, so the two sides were unable to reach an agreement. Also participating in the negotiations were staff from the street office, the judicial office, and the police station. We paid social security for our employees on time. The police also gave the cause of death. At present, the company is the innocent party." Mr. Liu said that whether Mr. Tuo's death was recognized as a work-related injury still needs to be further determined by the relevant departments. "If it is recognized as a work-related injury, the company will definitely compensate 100%. If it is not recognized as a work-related injury, the company will also provide certain compensation from a humanitarian perspective."

Mr. Liu also told reporters that on the morning of August 23, Mr. Tuo's relatives came to the company and put up banners. "Forty or fifty people came, and the police station sent police. I can understand the feelings of the family members, but such a scene affects the company's reputation and may also affect the compensation later."

"We sympathize with what happened to Mr. Tuo, and his family is indeed facing some difficulties now. The company will go all out to apply for an application to determine whether it is a work-related injury. In terms of humanitarian care, the company will give his family every penny it can, and we will fight for it." On the afternoon of August 25, Mr. Liu took the initiative to call the reporter and said that the company would strive for more compensation for Mr. Tuo's family.

Regarding the company's withholding of wages for Mr. Tuo, Mr. Liu said that because the company's business was in very poor condition, there was indeed a situation of withholding wages, but the withheld wages for Mr. Tuo had been paid in full on August 23.

According to Tianyancha APP, Zhuyou Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2016 and is located in Changsha City, Hunan Province. It is an enterprise mainly engaged in software and information technology services.

Can an injury on the way home from get off work be considered a work-related injury? Lawyer’s interpretation

If an employee dies suddenly in the company on the way home from work, can it be identified as a work-related injury? Fu Jian, director of Henan Zejin Law Firm, believes that according to the "Work Injury Insurance Regulations", the identification of work-related injuries is mainly based on working hours and workplaces, usually referring to work-related injuries that occur during working hours and in the workplace, including accident injuries or occupational diseases caused by work. If it occurs during non-working hours, but on the way to and from get off work, it is not the main responsibility of the employee, it may also be identified as a work-related injury. In this case, the employee died suddenly after get off work but before leaving the company. This situation is somewhat controversial in the identification of work-related injuries, because it is neither a typical injury that occurs during working hours nor fully meets the identification standards for traffic accidents on the way to and from work. Although the employee has clocked out, if his death is directly related to the company's work, such as due to overwork, high work pressure, etc., and this relationship still exists at the time of death, it may still be identified as a work-related injury. Family members can apply to the social insurance administrative department for work-related injury identification, and the specific result requires the administrative department to further determine it based on the facts of the case. Fu Jian also said that even if it is impossible to determine whether it is an industrial injury, there are many similar cases showing that the company may also need to bear relevant responsibilities.

A search by a reporter from Xin Huanghe found that similar incidents to Mr. Tuo's happened from time to time. On July 28, 2022, the Workers' Daily reported a case in which an employee of a company died suddenly on his way home from work. Although it did not meet the conditions for work injury identification in "working hours and workplace", the company was held responsible for "working without rest for a whole month and working overtime for nearly 130 hours" before the incident. The company was found to be responsible for 30% of the illegal employment.

It is reported that Zhu was an employee in the paint shop of Kang Company in Nantong, Jiangsu. At 20:03 on August 1, 2019, Zhu fell down shortly after driving an electric bicycle out of the company after get off work. At 4:56 the next day, Zhu was found 300 meters away from the north gate of the company, and the 120 staff confirmed his death on the spot. The Public Security Bureau's Physical Evidence Identification Office issued an appraisal opinion on the cause of Zhu's death as "death due to acute attack of coronary heart disease", and also stated that "his work fatigue and other conditions before his death may be the cause of his acute attack of coronary heart disease". In December 2019, Zhu's father and daughter filed an application for work injury identification with the local Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, but their lawsuit was rejected. After losing the administrative lawsuit, in 2021, Zhu's father and daughter sued Kang Company for tort. The court held that Zhu worked nearly 130 hours of overtime in the month before the accident, far exceeding the overtime limit stipulated in the Labor Law. Kang's employment of Zhu seriously violated the protective legal provisions of the Labor Law. Kang arranged for Zhu to work overtime in the paint shop under high temperatures for a long time, which obviously posed a serious risk to his health. In the end, the court ruled that Kang was responsible for 30% of the losses caused by Zhu's death. (Photo provided by the interviewee)

Reporter: Sun Min Editor: Zhou Quan Proofreader: Gao Xin