217: I think it's unfair, so I want to take care of it!

In the capital, at the Legal Department of Hongquan Company, the Legal Director listened to the report from his staff with a bewildered expression.

"Wait, what did you say? A rider hired a lawyer to file for arbitration to confirm an employment relationship with us? Is he out of his mind?"

"Does that have anything to do with us? What's the lawyer's name? Which law firm is he from? Isn't that a scam!"

The staff member waited for his superior to finish speaking before replying, "That lawyer's name is Zhou Yun, from Jinghai Zhentian Law Firm. Yes, it's the person you're thinking of."

The Legal Director fell silent upon hearing this, and after a long while, he said, "Oh, it's that Zhou Yun."

"How about this, have the Arbitration Committee send over the materials for me to review. If Zhou Yun is suing, he must have another intention…"

"We can consider talking to him and seeing what this is really about."

It wasn't out of fear; a company this large wouldn't be afraid of a lawyer, especially since the opposing party couldn't possibly win!

Yes, the Legal Director was very sure that Zhou Yun couldn't win. Their system had been operating for years, and it could be said that there was no possible employment relationship between the riders and the company.

So the question arose: Lawyer Zhou should be well aware of this, so why would he still initiate this arbitration?

If it were any other lawyer, it might be to scam money, but Zhou Yun was different!

Although many peers and experts felt that he was too unconventional, his professionalism was undeniable.

Therefore, the Legal Director could easily surmise whether this arbitration had a deeper meaning—like Xiang Zhuang performing a sword dance with the intention of attacking Pei Gong?

The staff member quickly contacted the Arbitration Committee again, added them on WeChat, and directly asked them to send photos of the application materials… This was simple and fast; after all, if there was a real hearing, the documents would still need to be served.

An hour later, the Legal Director finally finished his other tasks and began to review these materials. As he read, his brows furrowed.

"Heatstroke, then died after eleven days of treatment in the hospital?"

The Legal Director stood up and began pacing back and forth in his office. After seeing the application, he had already anticipated the problem: there was an eighty percent chance that Zhou Yun was applying for work-related injury identification after confirming the employment relationship!

After all, he worked as the Legal Director for such a company and had seen too many similar situations. In fact, their company's delivery riders across various regions experienced sudden deaths every year.

The company's approach was simple: let the local partner companies handle it themselves and prevent it from escalating.

If it escalated and caused public opinion, they would use public relations tactics, perhaps even pay some money to resolve it.

And they would definitely replace the cooperating company… If you can't even handle such a small matter, what's the use of you?

So Zhou Yun's thinking was correct: in this case, Hongquan Company was the 'father.' Only by making this 'father' feel personal pain and threat could pressure be put on the subordinate companies.

The Legal Director thought for a long time and decided to report to his superior to see how to proceed, whether to talk with Zhou Yun's side. If it was reasonable, they would resolve it directly and avoid making it too big.

At the same time, in Anping City, Zhou Yun was eating. He was now waiting for the other party to contact him.

In his previous life, there was a company quite similar to this one—of course, similar in its harshness.

At that time, there was also a highly publicized case where a rider died suddenly while delivering food in the early hours of the morning.

The reason it caused public outcry was that investigations showed the rider had been dead for quite some time, yet the backend was still constantly urging him to complete orders, revealing a kind of mechanical indifference.

And most importantly, neither the platform operating company nor the company that signed the cooperation agreement with the rider believed they should bear responsibility.

The public outcry grew quite large, and the platform company came forward, seemingly offering a humanitarian compensation of ten thousand yuan or so.

But this was just a drop in the bucket. In the end, the deceased's family sued both the platform company and the cooperating company in Court.

The Court's ruling at the time stated that although there was no agreement between the platform and the rider, and it was not an employment relationship, a hiring relationship, or a contracting relationship, etc., as the platform operator, its algorithm could detect rider abnormalities.

At that time, the rider did not die immediately after collapsing but passed away several hours later, and this forensic report was crucial evidence.

Therefore, the Court believed that the platform operation was at fault in this regard and should bear twenty percent of the responsibility.

And although the cooperating company nominally signed a cooperation agreement, it should have been a labor service relationship in fact, and it should bear seventy percent of the responsibility.

The rider himself failed to discover his physical problems in time and bore ten percent of the responsibility.

In the end, a total of over two million yuan was awarded in compensation, which also involved an insurance company. That's right, the insurance at that time also did not pay, because it was not an accident but an illness, so they refused to pay.

Ultimately, the insurance company lost and was ordered to pay six hundred thousand yuan. Basically, the insured amount for this aspect was similar across various companies.

Zhou Yun, of course, couldn't completely replicate that case now. If he sued directly, he might not get too much money, so he had to start from the employment relationship aspect.

Time slowly came to the next day. Zhou Yun did not plan to go out today. He wanted to thoroughly sort out the legal logic of work-related injury identification.

Around ten o'clock in the morning, his phone rang. He picked it up and saw it was an unknown number from the capital.

After a moment's thought, he smiled. That was quick! He then answered, "Hello, Zhou Yun from Zhentian Law Firm. How may I help you?"

A female voice came from the phone: "Hello, Lawyer Zhou, I'm Ruan Jiaying from the Legal Department of Hongquan Company Limited. We received news that you filed an application for confirmation of an employment relationship with the Arbitration Committee in Anping City, right?"

Zhou Yun quickly replied, "Yes, what's wrong? Are you planning to confirm it?"

In the capital, in her office, Ruan Jiaying said helplessly, "Lawyer Zhou, we cannot confirm this, and there is no relationship whatsoever. You should be aware of this. The situation has already been reported to our company's leadership."

"Our leadership wants to know why you initiated this arbitration. A lawyer like you wouldn't take on a case you're bound to lose, right?"

Zhou Yun walked to the window upon hearing this, looking at the hurried workers outside, and said, "The reason? It's simple. A perfectly healthy person died of heatstroke while working, and after all that, it's all his own responsibility."

"You look for the company that signed the agreement, and the company says we only have a cooperative relationship, and the death was an accident, so they're not responsible."

"You look for the company that pays the salary… Oh, you can't find them at all. To this day, there's no way to contact the company that pays the salary."

"You look for the operating company of the platform where he usually took orders, and they say there's no relationship whatsoever."

"You look for the insurance company, and the insurance company says it was an illness, not an accident, so they shouldn't pay."

"So, in other words, he worked so hard, not even knowing who he was working for. Do you think that's reasonable?"

Zhou Yun would never deny that Duan Liwei himself had responsibility. His own body, he was the primary responsible person—there was no problem with that. If he noticed the weather was too hot, he should have rested.

However, companies have assessments, online time requirements, and so on.

Employers have management rights. This management right isn't so direct, saying you must obey me, do whatever I tell you. It's not like that.

Instead, it's managed through assessments, performance, and various other methods. As we mentioned before, the root of everything is money, profit, managing through money.

This is why there are legal provisions for work-related injuries and so on—to provide protection for laborers.

"I guess you won't listen to what I'm saying, so forget it. In short, I think it's unfair, so I'm going to get involved!"