‘Overtime for free’, ‘late paycheques’: Chinese firm under fire for asking job applicants unreasonable questions

The interview questions also asked if employees would tolerate if managers hired family members on their team or if they would work during their free time

A local Shenzhen government bureau said it is aware of the questionnaire and is investigating the matter

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A Chinese company is under fire for a hiring questionnaire that may have violated labour laws. Photo: SCMP composite

Published: 6:00pm, 16 Oct 2022

A Shenzhen-based company is under fire over interview questions that largely asked if potential employees would be willing to work extra hours for no pay.

The hiring process of Haimingwei Science and Technology, an advanced electronics company, featured a questionnaire of 14 questions that leaked online and went viral.

Of the questions, many asked whether employees would accept working overtime for free, whether they would tolerate delays in their paycheques and if they would be willing to deal with work tasks during their free time.

Many questions from Haimingwei Science and Technology asked if employees were willing to work overtime. Photo: Shutterstock

Other questions included asking whether prospective employees would attend meetings and events during the evenings or weekends. It also asked if they would accept only having one-day weekends.

The company also asked if they would accept if managers hired own family members onto their team. One question asked how prospective employees would react if the company did not pay a housing allowance required under Chinese law.

An unnamed spokesman for the local government human resources bureau told China News Week, a mainland news outlet, that Haimingwei was aware of the questionnaire and had started an internal investigation into the matter.

“We heard that the company distributed this questionnaire recently,” the spokesman was quoted as saying. “We told them to rectify this problem because asking these types of questions are banned during job interviews.”

He said job applicants could file complaints to the labour authority if they encounter similar questions in the future.