(Yicai Global) Nov. 25 -- Well-known Chinese internet company Netease publicly apologized today to a staff member who was let go because of illness. 

The employee suffered various forms of abusive treatment at the tech giant's hands, he griped on Tencent Holding's popular WeChat messaging app, with treatment that included being violently frog-marched from the firm's premises by security guards after the company gave him his pink slip.

The staffer, a game planner in his late 20s, had worked at Beijing-based NetEase Games for five years. He was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy -- an ailment that saps the heart's ability to pump blood -- at the beginning of this year. 

He thereafter suffered a D-level performance rating at the end of March without any work delays stemming from his illness, and was forced by his supervisor to resign, according to his statement.

The employee, who had previously consistenly ranked among the top two in the department for performance, claimed he became the butt of various forms of unfair treatment when he sought to safeguard his rights. His supervisor withheld severance compensation to which he was legally entitled and blocked him from seeking another performance assessment. His attendance record was fabricated in his absence. 

Walking Papers

Human resources staff repeatedly threatened him and ultimately had security guards violently expel him from the company's grounds.

Performance rankings are workload ones that do not merely reflect the quality of work, NetEase said in its official response today, adding the worker's performance was indeed subpar after review. Some of its staff acted inappropriately in dealing with the employee's departure, however, and NetEase accordingly apologizes to the employee and his family, the firm stated.

NetEase will continue to try to communicate with the employee, provide him with all possible assistance, re-examine its internal talent development mechanism and employee personal welfare system, and set up a communications platform for those workers who leave.

Games are NetEase's main source of income. The firm's online gaming revenue rose 11.5 percent to USD1.6 billion in the third quarter, making up about 79 percent of its total, according to its latest financial report.

The company has been the subject of repeated reports of mass workforce cuts this year as China's internet sector enters an adjustment period, as an incident to which the company sold its cross-border e-commerce platform Kaola to Alibaba Group Holding for USD2 billion in September to focus on other businesses, including online music and games.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Ben Armour