95: When doing academic research, you have to be serious

Ren Weihao's mind hadn't caught up, so after thinking for a moment, he pulled a colleague beside him and asked, "Old Guo, don't leave, don't leave, why are you here?"

The man called Old Guo said with an annoyed expression, "What else could I be here for? To mediate! Damn it, I don't know which son of a bitch filed a labor arbitration."

"The Arbitration Committee called and insisted on mediation. I said no mediation, and immediately the labor inspection department called, asking if I wanted a fine or to mediate."

"Damn it, isn't this clearly bullying honest people?"

After hearing these words, Ren Weihao was stunned. This... this was exactly the same as what he had experienced before!

At this moment, after Old Guo finished complaining, he had already lit a cigarette and asked, "Old Ren, why are you here again?"

Ren Weihao thought for a moment and said, "Don't worry about why I'm here. I'm asking you, where did they notify you to mediate?"

Old Guo looked surprised and said, "Meeting Room 311 on the third floor. What's wrong? Is there a problem?"

"Holy crap!" Ren Weihao roared, "I'm mediating there too! What the hell is going on? Didn't they say it was an arbitration, so why are they making us mediate together?"

Old Guo also started to frown. "Does this mean we're facing the same situation? Or, that the same person filed arbitration against both of us?"

Ren Weihao shook his head, indicating he didn't know. After being a labor intermediary for so many years, it was the first time he had encountered such a situation.

"Let's see. It seems like quite a few colleagues from Xingguang are here today. Look, all the famous ones are here."

Over forty labor intermediaries, almost all of them, had arrived.

Ren Weihao frowned as he went up to the third floor and entered the meeting room.

This meeting room could be said to be the largest meeting room at the Arbitration Committee, packed with over forty people.

Ren Weihao's face was very unpleasant. He said to the staff there, "What exactly do you want to do? Hurry up! Who's like you? We have a pile of things to do."

However, no matter what he said, the staff only had one reply: "If you're busy, you can leave first. We didn't force you to come."

Damn it, Ren Weihao felt very aggrieved. You damn people call this not forcing me?

The labor inspector almost put a knife to my head; you call this not forcing me?

In the past, he used various connections to bully people, but now suddenly being played like this, he really couldn't stand it.

But he still didn't dare to leave, because when he called his connections earlier, they didn't even answer.

Finally, Director Huo at the front started speaking.

"The reason we notified everyone to come today is because there's a batch of arbitration cases that need to be resolved by everyone."

At this point, Director Huo raised his voice, "That's right, a batch! Does everyone know how many? There are a total of four thousand six hundred and fifty-eight!"

"Now, next to your seats are some of the arbitration materials related to you. You can take a look yourselves."

Hearing this, Ren Weihao picked up the paper next to him and immediately widened his eyes.

"I have over five hundred cases? No, how is this possible!"

Ren Weihao quickly went to look at the materials. This was only a part of it; after all, the materials for over five hundred cases couldn't all be piled up here.

After looking at a few, he confirmed that this was indeed related to him.

Because he saw the person named Zhang who he had previously cursed away.

Old Guo, next to him, had a very bad expression and said, "I actually have over three hundred here too! What's going on?!"

Some people had many, some had few. The internal competition in this industry was naturally very severe.

But everyone was very curious now why so many arbitrations suddenly appeared.

Director Huo spoke again, "Alright, everyone has seen it, right? Now, let me introduce the plaintiff's representative for these four thousand-plus cases, Lawyer Zhou Yun from Zhentian Law Firm."

So, under everyone's gaze, beside Director Huo, the young man stood up and even waved to the crowd...

It felt like a host introducing someone at an evening party, and then that person standing up to greet everyone...

This scene was truly indescribably bizarre.

After Zhou Yun greeted them, he immediately spoke into the microphone, "Everyone must be very curious why there are suddenly so many arbitrations. It's very simple: because I've recently been working on a project."

"What is this project called? It's called the Jinghai City Labor Market Research Report."

"Why did I suddenly do this? Because some time ago, I took on a case, a labor dispute. The boss originally said it clearly: if they worked for three months, they would get an additional stability subsidy."

"But after my client worked for three months, he didn't give it, saying it wasn't additional."

"At the time, it wasn't much, but later, during the lawsuit, that boss named Wu Junxian said that everyone in Jinghai does this, and told me to sue them all if I had the guts."

"I'm a person who likes to take things seriously, so I wanted to investigate thoroughly and see if the labor market in our Jinghai is really like this. The result... everyone saw."

"It was I who proactively sought out those workers who were cheated by you and filed arbitration."

"Don't misunderstand, I don't mean to target you. All the labor companies in Jinghai that do this have been sued by me. Sigh, for academic work, one must be serious, don't you all agree?"

"How about it, do you like this surprise?"

At this moment, Ren Weihao and the other labor intermediary bosses had only one thought in their minds: I'm damn screwed!

They never dreamed it would be such a situation. This person is simply insane.

What the hell is 'academic work'!

And what the hell is a 'surprise'? This is no damn surprise.

Wait, he just said... it was because someone named Wu Junxian said...

Damn it, I was just wondering why that scumbag Wu Junxian didn't come. I didn't expect he was the one who caused all this trouble!

However, even if he wanted to talk to Wu Junxian, he'd have to wait until this was over.

Because he had the most cases, Ren Weihao directly said, "What do you want?"

Zhou Yun smiled upon hearing this and said, "I've told everyone before, I asked everyone to come for mediation. You see, it's better to pay back the money owed to others. It's all hard-earned money..."

"Impossible, I don't agree! What owed or not owed? I didn't owe anything!" Ren Weihao immediately roared.

Are you kidding me? Over five hundred cases. I just took a quick look. Some cases involve a lot of compensation, some less, but no matter how you put it, compensating three million for over five hundred cases would be easy.

Old Guo next to him also said, "I won't mediate either! Why should I? You guys must have colluded, right? Is this how the Arbitration Committee arbitrates? Taking the lead in violating the law, is that it?"

"I don't care, I'm going to sue you! This is bullying!"

His two to three hundred cases also made his scalp tingle.

Everyone started making noise; in any case, they were unwilling to mediate.

They were happily making money, and suddenly they were told to mediate and pay so much. Are you kidding?

Just then, someone pushed open the door and walked in. It was a leader from the Labor Inspection Brigade with several staff members.

"I heard someone is unwilling to mediate? Then let's investigate!"

Seeing those uniforms and hearing those words, some of the people who were making noise immediately fell silent.

How could they forget these people? If paying a hundred thousand or eighty thousand could solve it, then pay it. The other party clearly came to cause trouble. The Arbitration Committee and labor inspection united to target people. They didn't know who this Lawyer Zhou was.

However, Ren Weihao still said, "Fine me then! Fine me whatever you want! I refuse to believe there's no place for justice!"

How much can they fine? The labor inspection field is not the financial industry; a fine of a few hundred thousand is already very good.

At most, they'll revoke the business license.

But in his current situation, what if his license is revoked?

If he really had to mediate, he would have to pay out several million. There's no way he could agree.

The staff of the inspection brigade didn't speak, but the leader was a little angry.

Up front, Zhou Yun looked at Director Huo and the leader of the inspection brigade and said, "You two see? I told you there would definitely be troublemakers and difficult people here."

"These are no longer ordinary difficult people. We must strike hard to resolve this."

However, perhaps it was an accident, but Zhou Yun didn't turn off his microphone, so his voice... was heard by everyone.

Ren Weihao was stunned for a moment, but then immediately roared, "You guys colluded to mess with us, right? Come on, let's see who's afraid of whom! That lawyer, you just wait!"

The scene erupted into chaos. Director Huo spoke again, "Alright, everyone stop arguing. I'll state again, today's mediation is entirely voluntary."

"If you are unwilling to mediate, then we won't force you. Ah, we'll proceed with the procedures as they should be. In short, everything must follow the principle of voluntariness."

As soon as he finished speaking, Ren Weihao immediately got up and walked out, followed by Old Guo. Basically, all the larger labor intermediaries left.

The rest were those who voluntarily accepted mediation.

All in all, this mediation was very successful, at least Zhou Yun thought so.

"Next, we'll first ensure the mediation is done properly. You two don't need to rush. Once the other districts are almost done, we'll report the cases together."

Director Huo hesitated for a long time before asking, "Lawyer Zhou, what about the charges?"

"Charges? Just pick a catch-all charge from the crime of disrupting market economic order. Let me see... how about illegal business operations!"

"They don't have the relevant qualifications for labor dispatch, and what they do is labor dispatch in the name of labor outsourcing."

Director Huo said with a helpless expression, "But according to regulations, this hasn't reached the level of a crime..."

Zhou Yun's expression became serious upon hearing this. "Twelve thousand plus cases, this is just what I alone investigated. What about the situations I haven't investigated?"

"The amount involved is ridiculously large. Such a situation has caused extreme damage to the market economic order, leaving so many people without a way to defend their rights!"

"Although criminal law has a principle of humility, in such a serious situation, can't the catch-all clause still be applied?"