He paid 2,500 euros, got the job in Estonia. In six months, he hasn’t had that many days off and lost 15 kilos. In recent months, he has received only a small portion of his salary. He reported finally his employer to the Labour Inspectorate.
This story is about Guo Bin, a doctor in traditional Chinese medicine, who, like thousands of other Chinese people, is trying to create a better life for himself and his family abroad. A few days after Guo Bin submitted his report, the Labour Inspectorate decided to proceed with his case.
4 of April, the Employer Hiina Tervisekeskus OÜ (in English the Chinese Health Center Ltd) and Guo Bin are going to be questioned at Labour Inspectorate. Then it will be decided how much money Guo Bin will get. This is the procedure in Estonia in suspected cases of social dumping. The date was first set to 21 of March but the hearing is postpond to 4 of April.
Stoppafusket a wittnes
I who write this article, has followed the case on a very close proximity and almost during all the time Guo Bin has been in Estonia. We both lived in a collective that includes seven people. That means that I from the beginning have seen when Guo Bin has gone to work in the morning, and when he has come back. Read more about this in my blog.
Bite back
The Labour Inspectorate notified the employer Yong Xue Hu by e-mail that Guo Bin had reported Hiina Tervisekeskus to the Inspectorate and the case will be taken up in a hearing.
Yong Xue Hu seems to have been upset over the e-mail: In a taped conversation, she says:
“I could easily show how wrong you are. Don’t think you… You’re actually the one playing the victim first. You think I can’t bite back? Well, I can, and I will.”
“ I won’t pay your salary or provide benefits, and there won’t be requirements for overtime. So, if you’re not happy, don’t feel obligated to stay. Remember, no one is forcing you to be here. I shouldn’t even have to say this.”
Stoppafusket has asked Yong Xue Hu for comment on this statements and it is as follows:
“He can say whatever he likes, you can continue writing your “story”. Sorry! Please don’t disturb me anymore. I need to work and rest. It’s so boring🙄”
Guo Bin with his Estonian representative at the Labour Inspectorate in Tallinn, Estonia, to report the employer Hiina Tervisekeskus.
The accommodation
The room where Guo Bin was living was in an apartment in the old town of Tallin. This room was payed by his employer. The day after Yong Xue Hu received the Labour Inspectorate’s e-mail, she terminated the contract for the room. First ten days later she informed Guo Bin that she had terminated the contract and that he had to move out 11 of March.
Stoppafusket sent by e-mail with several questions to Yong Xue Hu. One question was if the termination of Guo Bin’s room was a punishment for reporting to the Labour Inspectorate.
Yong Xue Hu responds in writing:
”I want to tell everyone clearly that I informed Guo Bin one month in advance on February 11 that the company would not renew the lease contract and Guo Bin’s house would not be renewed. Extended to March 11. This is also our goodwill. You know what? I think I can exercise the power I have and stop renting.”
Two days later, Yong Xue Hu sends a message to Guo Bin that there are cheap flights to China.
Written question from Stoppafusket: “Are you trying by any means to get him out of Estonia so that you will not meet at the Labour Inspectorate?”
”Are cheap flights important to you? This is puzzling. Can’t you communicate properly?” “The fact that I shared about cheap plane tickets has become something you call “hostility”. It is malicious hype against me”, Yong Xue Hu replies.
Computer skills
There are “foreign employment agencies” in China specializing in matching employers from other countries with Chinese work force. The business is booming and lucrative. Every Chinese person who gets a job must pay expensive money for the service. Those employment agencies are allowed to operate in China after receiving a qualification certificate from the Ministry of Commerce.
Guo Bin contacted such an employment agency and, due to his great computer skills, managed to find Hiina Tervisekeskus in Tallinn himself, which, through the agency, was looking for a masseuse.
Expedition fee
The employment agency would charge 40 000 Yuan (5 000 euros) in agency fees if Guo Bin would get a job. That is an incredible amount of money for an ordinary working Chinese person. Guo Bin and his wife earn together 750 euros a month.
The money, which, among other things, must be enough for amortization and interest on the mortgage, food, clothes for them and their two daughters. Money that shall cover everything a family needs.
By contacting Hiina Tervisekeskus himself, Guo Bin would not have to pay anything at all, that was what he thought.
“But I had to pay 2 500 euros in handling fees to my employer to get the job. I had to borrow the money from friends to make it. She actually wanted more but I said I don’t have more money. “
Borrowed money
Guo Bin transferred another 540 euros to Yong Xue Hu.
“She said she needed to borrow” says Guo Bin.
It sounds very naive if you believed that. If an employer needs to borrow money, shouldn’t you have reacted to that?
“The company was registered with the foreign employment agency, so I trusted that everything was okay. I had spoken to my employer, and I also trusted her.”
Nothing to fuss about
In the same taped conversation that’s mention above, Yong Xue Hu says about the money:
“But 2500, is it something to fuss about? Honestly, even 15 000 wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. They were given voluntarily. So what exactly is your point?”
In writing for Stoppafusket, Yong Xue Hu partially has a different explanation:
“Guo Bin needed my help to end the contract with the Chinese employment agency.Voluntary payment is an individual voluntary act, and I have a text to prove it.”“He is also an adult. I didn’t lie to him or ask anything from him. Instead, I saved him a lot of money. Now they are the first to complain about the bad guys and confuse right and wrong.”
At 9 or 10 o’clock
After the report was submitted to the Labour Inspectorate, something basically happens every day for Guo Bin at work.
An incident is Stoppafusket and another person present exactly when it happens. Guo Bin receives a text at 9:03, Monday morning the 5 February, from his employer that a customer has been waiting for him since 9:00.
Guo Bin who had worked on the day before, a Sunday, and have had two clients had not received any information then or later on Sunday that he has to be at the clinic at 9:00. He runs to the clinic.
Later that day, when Guo Bin asks his employer if he should start work at 10 o’clock as it says on the front door or at 9 o’clock.
Here is the translated recorded conversation:
”Guo Bin: I would like to ask, should I work according to the working hours on the door, or the hours you told me before?
Yong Xue Hu: You are following your own understanding. I don’t know now. Anyway
Guo Bin: You don’t know either? As the boss here, you don’t know.
Yong Xue Hu: Yes, I can’t tell you why now, because you do everything according to your understanding, then you just do it according to your understanding. What do you want me to say? What’s the use of my saying it? Right, it’s useless. Because what I did and what I said is reversed. Although the wages are not fully paid to you, which is controversial, but now you have to count the money even for sitting here. I don’t know, so that’s what we’re talking about now. I can’t say what I want to say. It’s up to you. I can only say it this way and follow my understanding. I asked the customer to sign in today because you didn’t arrive at 9 o’clock.”
After this event, Guo Bin made sure to be at the clinic from 9 am until 6 pm. Sometimes he had to wait outside for someone to arrive and open the clinic.
Sometimes he had customers later than closing time, 7 pm. And as usual he had customers on Sundays and/or Saturdays.
To be safe, he documented when he came to work and when he went from his job by taking a photo with timestamp.
Cleaning and no cellphone
Guo Bin was also ordered to clean the health studio. First it should be twice a week, then every day. Guo Bin documented every time he was cleaning as a proof.
Guo Bin is very familiar with cleaning but got a half hour long lesson how to clean toilettes by the employer. The lesson is documented.
During some days he did not get any customer and had to sit on a bench from morning to evening. He tried to study English on the phone even though his employer told him to not use it during working time.
Pleading to get his salary
8 February 2024 Guo Bin should have his salary for January. He is pleading to his employer to give him money. He has to eat:
Here is the translation from an messenger conversation between Guo Bin and his employer:
” Guo Bin: January’s salary should be received today. If I don’t receive it today, you owe me 3 months’ salary. Part of the salary you paid in November and December is what I asked you for. You won’t pay it to me if I don’t remind you. .That’s my monthly bank loan repayment. You’ve been delaying my salary since October last year. At first you
One of Guo Bins documentation of that he
actually clean the clinic without hesitation.
said you couldn’t pay it on the 8th, but you delayed it until the 15th. Then you said you were short of funds. I said you would at least let me repay the loan. In addition to paying me the loan every month Money, what other money? You need to give me January’s salary today. I need to eat and pay back the loan.
Hu Yongxue: I can’t give it today, sorry. Let me think of other ways. Many of your words are inconsistent with the original facts. I also have to pay my mortgage, rent, and taxes… it’s not enough.”
Sick leave
Today, Guo Bin is on sick leave. This is how it works in Estonia: The doctor sends the sick leave document to the Tax Agency, which then sends the information to the employer, who must pay 5 days sick leave before the Estonian Health insurance fund pays.
The sick person does only need to inform the employer that he is sick, which Guo Bin did by messenger on the same day he went to the doctor.
But in the warning letter sent from Yong Xue Hu on February 24, Guo Bin’s sick leave is stated as “behaviour in breach of work obligations” as he did not tell what diagnosis he has, which doctor he will contact, etc.
The warning letter
Three additional points were included in the warning letter.
Guo Bin took the day off, Friday 25 January, to go to Labour Inspectorate, the employer states that it is unauthorized absence and that she did not know where he was. Stoppafusket has seen screenshots where Guo Bin converses with Yong Xue Hu that he needs to take time off.
In addition to the text message conversation, the two of them were talking on the phone when Guo Bin was leaving the apartment to go to the Labour Inspectorate and had his Estonian representative with him who overheard the conversation.
The day Stoppafusket witnessed Guo Bin running to the workplace to a waiting customer is also stated in the warning letter.
“On February 5, 2024, you were 35 minutes late for work without warning and the customer had to wait for you all this time.”
February 7, 2 days later, Guo Bin was de facto late for work (1.5 hours).
Guo Bin had discovered that he was not registered as a taxpayer in Estonia and was at the tax office to solve this. A 1.5 hour delay should be compared to the lack of normal leave. In August 2023 for example, he was only two days off.
No sick-leave money
In Estonia it is against the law for an employer to terminate an employment contract during a persons sick leave. But this Hu Yongxue did terminate Guo Bins employment contract and that without sending him a notice that he is dismissed from work.
He had no clue until the 26 march when he got an e-mail from the Estonian tax board that his employment contract ended 29 of February.
The result of Hu Yongxue action is that Guo Bin will not get any sick leave money after 29 of February.
Sleeping on a floor
Guo Bin is lucky compared to other victims of work-related crime. If he would not had friends that backed him up – he would have given up.
His friends has now signed a laywer for him and borrowed him money to live. He has a place to stay and are currently sleeping on a floor.
Guo Bin’s working hours
Guo Bin trained as a Chinese doctor between 2013–2015 at China Li Ren Vocational Skills, Zibo, Shandong. After that he has treat more than 10 000 patients in his own clinic and in Mining Machinery Hospital of Shandong Province, China. His specialty is bone setting that can be described as Chinese chiropractic. If you click here you can see on his channel some of the treatments he does. As a doctor, he has kept a journal where all the patients are included, the diagnosis, the treatment and the time for the treatment. As of mid-August, he has also added information about how long he is at the clinic. Stoppafusket has gone through all those documents.
Few days off
In Estonia, Guo Bin has treated more than 600 clients at Hiina Tervisekeskus. He did not receive any salary for the work in July. In August, he had to sleep for two weeks at the clinic before getting the room in the old town. At the clinic he had no possibility to cook food.
In November and December, he received only a fraction of his salary. And in January he did not received a single euro. Guo Bin is not big, only 1.68 tall, and has lost 15 kilograms since starting work at Hiina Tervisekeskus.
Employer’s comments
It has been many e-mail exchanges between Stoppafusket and Yong Xue Hu. She has a request that Stoppafusket shall publish every word that she writes. That will be done.
The answers and statements that the employer provides are interesting, so it is recommended to read all correspondence between Stoppafusket and Yong Xue Hu. Click here to come to the article.
Compilation of number of clients and days off
Here is a summary of how many clients Guo Bin has had per month and how many days off he has had.
July (25 July – 31 July)
Number of clients: 16
Number of free days: 1
August (1 august – 31 august)
Number of clients: 109
Number of free days: 2
September (1 September – 30 September)
Number of clients:118
Number of free days: 4
October (1 October – 31 October)
Number of clients: 98
Number of free days: 3
Number of days waiting at the room for the employer to call: 2
November (1 November – 30 November)
Number of clients: 94
Number of free days: 3
Number of days waiting at the room for the employer to call: 1
December (1 December – 31 December)
Number of clients: 75
Number of free days: 5
Number of days waiting at the room for the employer to call: 1
January (1 January – 31 January)
Number of clients: 77
Number of free days: 2
Number of days asked for be free: 1
Number of days waiting at the room for the employer to call: 4
February (1 February – 13 February)
Number of clients: 25
Number of free days: 1
Photo and text: Anna-Lena Norberg
