Chinese court says companies can’t lay off workers because of AI

Canadians have mixed feelings on AI, with a 2025 Angus Reid report noting that most have concerns about the technology’s impact on jobs, privacy, and more. It hardly comes as a surprise when the CEOs of AI companies run around telling people that AI will take everyone’s jobs.

Maybe people would feel better about AI if it weren’t a looming threat to their livelihoods. For example, if people had some kind of protection from the types of disruptions that could come from technologies like AI.

In separate and totally unrelated news, a Chinese court has ruled that companies can’t get rid of workers to replace them with AI systems amid the country’s race to implement AI.

At the end of April, the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court decided that a tech firm based in eastern China illegally fired a worker who refused a demotion after his job was automated with an AI tool.

Per Bloomberg, the employee, identified only as ‘Zhou,’ was a quality assurance worker responsible for checking the accuracy of outputs from large language models (LLMs). When his job was taken over by an AI system, the company offered him a demotion with a 40 per cent pay cut. When Zhou refused the reassignment, the company terminated his employment.

In a separate statement published by the court, it said that companies can use AI to improve efficiency, liberate labour, and enhance employee wellbeing, but companies “cannot unilaterally reduce wages and cancel contracts in the name of technological change.”

Bloomberg reports that the ruling builds on a similar ruling from December when another Chinese court found that a mapping company failed to meet necessary legal standards when it terminated an employee’s contracts due to AI.

Meanwhile in North America, we’re seeing companies use AI as an excuse to lay workers off by the hundreds. Big tech companies have made headlines with massive layoffs in the thousands. Here in Canada, we’ve seen big telcos reduce jobs as well, including Bell, Telus, and most recently Rogers with its offer of buyouts to half its staff. And while not all of these are explicitly because of AI, the spectre of automation looms over all these job reductions.

But while people in Canada have a somewhat negative view of AI, multiple surveys indicate people in China have much more positive views of the technology. And while I can’t say for sure, I’m confident knowing you won’t lose your job to AI probably helps people view the technology better.

Source: Bloomberg