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Court: AI cannot be sole reason for firing workers

5/1/2026

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Story summary
  • Hangzhou People’s Court ruled companies cannot fire workers solely to replace them with AI.
  • The court ordered compensation for Zhou, whose salary fell from 25,000 yuan to 15,000 yuan on April 28.
  • Higher courts upheld the ruling, stating AI is not an “objective major change”—defined by Beijing’s HR bureau as unforeseeable, not planned AI shifts—that justifies dismissal.
  • Judges required employers to offer retraining, redeployment or equivalent roles before termination.