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Comment by Hnrobert42 | Hacker News Reader

I am pre-disposed to hate Huawei, but I didn’t find the article compelling. Few of the sources were named with little justification for the anonymity. If they are ex-employee, what is the fear? Even about a court case, Huawei denies they were sued, yet the article doesn’t address whether court records dispute that.

As for the terrible working conditions, the article takes an absurdly long time to make a few tepid points. Chinese expats don’t mingle with the locals. They are rotated if they do develop ties with the local population.

The articles asserts that employees are handcuffed by payment in shares. When leaving the company, they must sell their shares. The articles says this robs them of their retirement. How? Must they be sold at a loss? When my employer matched my retirement contributions in shares, I was pissed that I couldn’t sell until I quit.

Again, I would love to hate Huawei, but this article isn’t doing it for me.

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> They are rotated if they do develop ties with the local population.

That's the killer for me. That's illegal.

It's only illegal when it's not the government doing it.

Rotating duty to prevent sympathizing with the locals is standard procedure for law enforcement agencies above the municipal level.

In the US State Department I'm not sure if it's explicitly given as official justification, but it's widely understood as the justification for the entire way things are organized.

Is it illegal when it's not the government doing it though? In what country, what laws make it illegal?

> In what country, what laws make it illegal?

I'm pretty sure it's not illegal in my country but I dunno about the person I was responding to. I was just pointing out that it's SOP in some industries.

What law is this breaking?

In Germany there is no at-will employment.

Employers need a reason to fire employees.

This prevents them from reaching into people's private lives, like Huawei is doing here.

Does "rotated" mean fired? I think they are talking about Chinese nationals reassigned back to China or other non-German countries, right? it might be illegal in Germany, Germany does have very strong labor protections! It's still not clear to me what law would make it illegal.

> I think they are talking about Chinese nationals reassigned back to China or other non-German countrie

This almost certainly doesn't matter.

If someone is working, full time, in the german office, for years, then they are almost certainly covered by german labor laws, even if they are a chinese national.

Right. It's just not clear to me that transfering someone back to the home office (or another international office) would be a violation of German laws against termination without cause, as GP suggested. Cause... it doesn't seem like termination? But maybe? It doesn't seem obvious. I'm just not sure we're all talking about the same thing.

You have a point. I am not sure about the legal situation actually when it comes to rotations.

But if your employer justifies any negative action towards you with "the person made friends in their private life", you can probably sue for harassment/bullying.

Or maybe other offices in Germany

Sure it’s illegal, but meh. Quit or sue.

As an ex-Cisco employee it is easy for me to hate Huawei, no need for an article. :)

But seriously... Disrespecting the local culture as an expat has nothing but bad effects on the organization in the long term. Huawei will pay a price for this, in the long term.

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