[China] High court says 72-hour working week is illegal

Workers in China have earned a victory over employers' gruelling work schedules, as the Supreme People's Court says a common schedule requiring people to work 12 hours a day for six days a week is illegal, NPR reports.

In recent years, several worker deaths have reportedly been linked to these schedules, common in the tech industry and in other sectors, such as logistics.

One case highlighted in the high court's recent decision revolves around a man named Zhang. He was hired by a courier company in the summer of 2020, working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week. The schedule gained notoriety with its "996" label.

Under Chinese law, monthly overtime totals are essentially limited to 36 hours. Zhang refused to work the illegal amounts of overtime dictated by his schedule and was fired. The courier company said Zhang failed to fulfil the requirements of his probation period. But he disagreed, and an arbitration panel ordered his former employer to pay him a month's salary of 8,000 yuan (about $1,237).

The high court affirmed that decision last week, saying that Zhang had been fired illegally and that the company's work policies run afoul of the law.

The ruling is a clear rebuke to the 996 schedule which has sparked online protests and criticism in recent years.

Dissatisfaction with the long work hours made headlines in early 2021 after a young woman dropped dead after working a string of excessively long shifts for a Chinese e-commerce startup called Pinduoduo. Many of the firm's employees came forward to say they regularly worked more than 300 hours each month, far in excess of legal limits.

The high court's decision is based on at least 10 cases in which workers said they were being unfairly denied overtime pay and related compensation, including payment for injuries incurred while working overtime. Some of the cases also centred on disputes that erupted after employers sought to use special agreements with their employees to circumvent labour laws.

Resistance to the 996 schedule sparked online protests in 2019, when overworked employees connected with each other and exchanged information on a GitHub project called 996.ICU.

The organisers said that the name reflects "an ironic saying among Chinese developers, which means that by following the '996' work schedule, you are risking yourself getting into the ICU (Intensive Care Unit)."

Source: NPR

(Links via original reporting)

Workers in China have earned a victory over employers' gruelling work schedules, as the Supreme People's Court says a common schedule requiring people to work 12 hours a day for six days a week is illegal, NPR reports.

In recent years, several worker deaths have reportedly been linked to these schedules, common in the tech industry and in other sectors, such as logistics.

One case highlighted in the high court's recent decision revolves around a man named Zhang. He was hired by a courier company in the summer of 2020, working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week. The schedule gained notoriety with its "996" label.

Under Chinese law, monthly overtime totals are essentially limited to 36 hours. Zhang refused to work the illegal amounts of overtime dictated by his schedule and was fired. The courier company said Zhang failed to fulfil the requirements of his probation period. But he disagreed, and an arbitration panel ordered his former employer to pay him a month's salary of 8,000 yuan (about $1,237).

The high court affirmed that decision last week, saying that Zhang had been fired illegally and that the company's work policies run afoul of the law.

The ruling is a clear rebuke to the 996 schedule which has sparked online protests and criticism in recent years.

Dissatisfaction with the long work hours made headlines in early 2021 after a young woman dropped dead after working a string of excessively long shifts for a Chinese e-commerce startup called Pinduoduo. Many of the firm's employees came forward to say they regularly worked more than 300 hours each month, far in excess of legal limits.

The high court's decision is based on at least 10 cases in which workers said they were being unfairly denied overtime pay and related compensation, including payment for injuries incurred while working overtime. Some of the cases also centred on disputes that erupted after employers sought to use special agreements with their employees to circumvent labour laws.

Resistance to the 996 schedule sparked online protests in 2019, when overworked employees connected with each other and exchanged information on a GitHub project called 996.ICU.

The organisers said that the name reflects "an ironic saying among Chinese developers, which means that by following the '996' work schedule, you are risking yourself getting into the ICU (Intensive Care Unit)."

Source: NPR

(Links via original reporting)