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She found She’s Pregnant After Signing the Dissolution Agreement

Sophie & Denis LegalTips 2021-05-29

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Sunny Technology Co., Ltd. ("Sunny") and the employee Angela signed an "Employment Dissolution Agreement" (“Agreement”) on 15 March 2018. The Agreement mainly stipulates that the employment contract between the two parties will be terminated on 31 March 2018 after friendly negotiation.Sunny科技有限公司(以下简称“Sunny公司”)与员工Angela于2018年3月15日签订《劳动合同解除协议书》。该协议主要约定经协商,双方劳动合同于2018年3月31日解除。 
On 1 April 2018, Angela went to the hospital for a medical check-up as she did not feel well, and on 9 April 2018, she was told "being pregnant." According to the outcome of the medical examination, Angela was pregnant on 15 March 2018 already, meaning when she signed the Agreement.2018年4月1日,Angela因身体不适,前往医院进行体检,2018年4月9日,被确认为“早孕”。根据上述检查结论,Angela系于2018年3月15日前就已经怀孕。
On 12 April 2018, Angela called Sunny to inform them of her pregnancy and made it clear that she did not know about the pregnancy when she signed the Agreement. Thus, she requested that the agreement be revoked and the employment relationship be reinstated on the grounds that there was a significant misunderstanding at the time of signing the Agreement. But Sunny believes that the Agreement was a true and exact declaration of intention of both parties and therefore, did not agree to the resumption.2018 年4月12日,Angela致电Sunny公司告知其怀孕事实,并明确表示其在签订《劳动合同协商解除协议书》时不知道怀孕,因此以签订该协议时存在重大误解为由,要求撤销该协议,恢复劳动关系。但Sunny公司认为,双方签订该协议是双方的真实意思表示,因此不同意恢复。
After many unsuccessful negotiations, Angela filed for a labor arbitration on 4 May 2018, requesting to revoke the Agreement and restore the employment relationship.经多次协商未果,Angela遂于2012年5月4日提起劳动仲裁,请求撤销《劳动合同协商解除协议书》,恢复劳动关系。Focus of the controversy:争议焦点:Whether Angela signed the Agreement without knowing that she is pregnant constitutes a "significant misunderstanding" as set out in the 《General Principles of Civil Law 》, and whether the Agreement should be revoked.Angela在不知道已怀孕的情况下签订《劳动合同协商解除协议书》是否构成《民法通则》中所规定的“重大误解”,《劳动合同协商解除协议书》是否应当予以撤销。
Expert’s opinion:专家意见:Article 59 of the <General Principles of Civil Law> stipulates that in the event that any party has a significant misunderstanding, the party shall have the right to request the court or the arbitration organ to change or revoke it. Then what exactly is a "significant misunderstanding"? In this regard, Article 71 of the <Opinions of the Supreme People's Court on the Implementation of the General Principles of the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China (Trial Version)> clearly defines that the party's misperception of the nature of the act, the other party, the variety, quality, specification and quantity of the subject matter, etc., makes the consequences of the act contrary to its own intention and causes greater losses, which may be regarded as a significant misunderstanding.《民法通则》第五十九条规定,就行为人对行为内容有重大误解的情况下,行为人有权请求人民法院或者仲裁机关予以变更或者撤销。那么究竟何为“重大误解”?对此,《最高人民法院关于贯彻执行〈中华人民共和国民法通则〉若干问题的意见(试行)》第七十一条做出明确定义,即行为人因对行为的性质、对方当事人、标的物的品种、质量、规格和数量等的错误认识,使行为的后果与自己的意思相悖,并造成较大损失的,可以认定为重大误解。
In this case, although Angela was pregnant before signing the Agreement, and was not aware of it at the time. However, according to the legal definition of the aforementioned "significant misunderstanding", this is not a false understanding of the nature of her act of negotiating the termination of the employment contract, neither the wrong understanding of the counterparty or the subject matter, etc. Therefore, Angela's claim that she succumbed to a significant misunderstanding while signing the Agreement was invalid.本案中,Angela虽然在签订《劳动合同协商解除协议书》前已经怀孕,且其当时并不知情,但根据前述“重大误解”的法律定义,不难看出,这并非属于其对协商解除劳动合同行为性质的错误认识,更无从谈起对对方当事人或标的物等的错误认识。因此,Angela提出的关于重大误解而签订《劳动合同协商解除协议书》的主张不成立。
Of course, one might argue that given the truth that it would have disadvantaged Angela to find a new job during pregnancy, Angela would not have agreed to dissolute the employment contract if she had known she was pregnant. This argument seems tenable. However, let's look at the following example: suppose someone has bought a relatively expensive property while the market price of real estate was actually going down, but he was unaware of it. Then he asked for the cancellation of the property purchase agreement because of the price going down, could he cancel it? Obviously, he couldn’t. This person has a false understanding about the objective factors which exist when he made his decision, and the adverse consequences of such misperception can only be borne by himself. In other words, he has no right to request the cancellation of the purchase agreement on the grounds of a "significant misunderstanding".当然,可能有人会认为,Angela如果知道其已经怀孕,并出于怀孕期间再就业将可能出于劣势的考虑,Angela是不会同意协商解除。让我们看下面这个例子:某人在对房价已经处于降价趋势,但其并不知情的情况下,购买了一套价值相对较高的房产,后因房子降价要求撤销房屋买卖合同,这一主张是否成立?显然他的主张不能成立。行为人对其行为发生时的客观因素产生错误认识,这样的错误认识所产生的不利后果只能由行为人自己承担,无权以“重大误解”为由要求撤销合同。
In addition, Article 42 of the <Labor Contract Law of PRC> provides special protection to female employees during three special times ( pregnancy, childbirth, lactation), that is, the company may not terminate the employment contract in accordance with the provisions of Article 40 of the <Labor Contract Law of PRC>  about dismissal of employees without fault and the provisions of article 41 about economic layoffs. However, the law also respects the true declaration of the intention of both parties, and does not therefore prohibit the parties from terminating the contract through friendly negotiation.此外,《劳动合同法》第四十二条对三期内(孕期、产期、哺乳期)女职工进行了特殊保护,即公司不得依据《劳动合同法》第四十条员工无过失而被辞退的条款及第四十一条经济性裁员的条款解除劳动合同。但法律同时也尊重双方的真实意思表示,并没因此禁止双方通过协商解除合同的方式。
Under the Chinese labor law, the only prerequisite for an employee to seek a resumption of an employment relationship is that the company illegally terminated the employment contract. However, Sunny and Angela terminated the employment contract through negotiation, which obviously, was not a violation of the law.根据相关法律,员工要求恢复劳动关系的唯一前提是,公司违法解除或终止劳动合同,然而Sunny公司与Angela是双方协商解除了劳动合同,并非违法解除。
In summary, the fact that Angela being unaware of her pregnancy did not constitute a "significant misunderstanding", and Sunny's termination of the employment contract with Angela was in line with the law, and the declaration of intention between the two parties was true and valid, so Angela's request for arbitration was denied.综上,Angela不知怀孕的事实不构成“重大误解”,Sunny公司解除与Angela的劳动合同符合法律规定,双方之间的意思表示真实有效,所以Angela的仲裁请求不成立。


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