China’s 996 overtime culture: tech firm under investigation for pressuring staff to work extra hours
- The 996 culture where people work from 9am to 9pm six days a week is ‘severely violating the law’, authorities say
- It has long been common in China’s tech sector; in some extreme cases employees died after working excessive hours
A leading Chinese information technology company is under investigation for pressuring its staff to work overtime by hanging banners berating people for not staying back past their finishing times.
The Chutian Metropolis News reported that Inspur, a Shandong-based IT giant in eastern China, was exposed harassing staff to work extra hours for free after management hung banners promoting the practice in its head office in Jinan last month.
One banner carried the slogan: “If you are free, go work overtime. Go to finish our unfinished tasks.” Others read: “You work overtime and I work overtime, then for anyone who doesn’t, he can’t escape working overtime”, “If everybody takes the extra shifts, it’s a really good thing. Overtime is really good”, and: “Working overtime in the daytime, you don’t doze off; working overtime in the evening, you can’t fall asleep.”
The Jinan labour rights supervision authority said earlier this week that it would begin an investigation after the banners were leaked online; triggering a public backlash, the report said.
State broadcaster CCTV weighed in with an editorial on Wednesday saying advocating hard work was not the same as asking people to work for free.
“Inspur Group is showing off these overtime slogans, perhaps thinking they are creative,” CCTV commented. “This behaviour reflects a deformed overtime culture and shows the company’s ignorance of the law and regulations.”