Former GlaxoSmithKline China Staff Seek Compensation for Unpaid 'Expenses'

Three former Chinese GSK employees are seeking compensation for illegal dismissal, a lawyer told Reuters news agency.

The three former GlaxoSmithKline workers want the company to reimburse them for unpaid expenses which they said were part of bribe money they paid hospital workers with approval from management, lawyer Liu Feng told the news agency.

They are seeking two months' pay for every year of their employment with the British pharmaceutical giant, after they were dismissed for expenses that were "not compliant with company regulation".

Some former staff were laid off with unpaid expenses worth more than $32,200, according to Liu.

If the courts were to rule against Glaxo, it would only have to pay out a minor sum but it is yet another headache for the company.

"The workers think the company is very dishonest and its attitude abominable. They are very dissatisfied with the company's actions," Liu told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Liu said around two dozen other former GSK staff had contacted him about filing similar complaints, but they were waiting to see the outcome of the current cases.

It is the latest twist in a long-running and unprecedented corruption scandal that has spread across borders and even involved a sex tape.

Bribery Scandal

Chinese police charged British Mark Reilly, Glaxo's former China chief, along with two Chinese executives on allegations of widespread corruption in order to promote sales of GSK's drugs in the country.

Reilly, along with Zhang Guowei and Zhao Hongyan, are alleged to have routed 3bn yuan ($488m, £307m, €365m) in bribes to doctors through a network of travel agencies and consultancies over a six-year period.

In a separate scandal, GSK was notified by the UK's Serious Fraud Office in May that it was being investigated for possible criminal violations in its commercial practices.

Meanwhile, Glaxo itself has launched a number of internal investigations into alleged corrupt practices at a number of its operations in the Middle East.