Beijing YIRENPING Center Strongly Doubts the Credibility and Integrity of Nokia in the Lawsuit Regarding Hep B Discrimination

August 13, 2008, Beijing YIRENPING Center

Nokia (China) Telecommunication Co. Ltd., Dongguan Branch was sued by a job applicant, who was refused by Nokia because he is an HBV carrier. In the morning of 31st July 2008, the second instance opened in Dongguan Intermediate People's Court.

According to the telephone recording evidence provided by the plaintiff, a Miss Wei, who claimed to be an HR staff of Dongguan branch of Nokia (China), told the plaintiff clearly enough that the plaintiff was refused because he was an HBV carrier.  Yangcheng Evening News and Zhengzhou Evening News covered this case and their journalists had called to Miss Wei from Nokia Dongguan HR department separately and Miss Wei told the journalist of Yangcheng Evening News that HBV carriers were unacceptable. (The reports are attached below.)

During the court investigation, Nokia denied that Miss Wei in the telephone recording was once its staff.

We are taken aback by this action of Nokia. We can’t help asking Nokia one question: if there were no such a person, how could the two newspapers mentioned above have interviewed her, being the staff of HR department. 

We have learned that the plaintiff has applied for an investigation conducted by the court on the identity of Miss Wei. But Nokia did not. If Nokia is confident on the identity of Miss Wei, why did not Nokia apply for a judicial investigation on the identity of Miss Wei by itself to prove its innocence?

Given the response of Nokia, we have reason to suspect that Nokia did not have the courage to apply for a judiciary investigation on the identity of Miss Wei. Furthermore, the behavior of Nokia of denying the identity of Miss Wei shows the degeneration of honesty and is telling a lie flagrantly. 

Jorma Ollila, the CEO of Nokia once said that sense of worth is the key point of keeping cohesiveness and the process of keeping promise is more efficient than money or any other reward. However, it is regretful to see that Nokia (China) is abandoning its sense of worth and promise by its behavior. Nokia has professed that Nokia carries out the highest ethical standards. To our regret, as far as this case is concerned, we can only see the hypocrisy of Nokia (China) and the morality and behaviors of Nokia (China) is doubtable.

As a commonweal organization which traditionally focuses on social equity and justice, Beijing YIRENPING Center pays close attention to this case and the credibility of Nokia. We press Nokia to carry out its declaration and promise, and investigate the credibility of Nokia (China) in this case. We also press Nokia to face its problem honestly, admit and correct this mistake, instead of hiding a fault with a lie.

Attach are the reports of Yangcheng Evening News and Zhengzhou Evening News:

http://news.sina.com.cn/o/2007-03-15/144511420321s.shtml

http://news.163.com/07/0314/08/39HIKVC90001124J.html