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Tencent headquarters in the China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen. The company’s game developer Lightspeed & Quantum Studios announced in June that it would require employees to leave the office by 6pm one day per week, a retreat from the 996 work schedule that has become common in the industry. Photo: Handout
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Big Tech’s excessive 996 overwork culture in China is illegal without extra compensation, top court reminds employers

  • The Supreme People’s Court highlighted a case involving 12-hour shifts, six days a week, found to violate Chinese law in a warning to employers
  • The so-called 996 schedule has been a common but controversial feature of China’s tech sector, resulting in the death of employees in extreme cases
China jobs
Coco Feng
Coco Fengin Beijing
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China’s top court and labour ministry issued a warning about violations of the country’s labour law that signals potential trouble for Big Tech firms relying on the excessive overwork culture known as 996.

The Supreme People’s Court and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security published a joint statement on Thursday detailing 10 cases involving common labour disputes to remind employers to follow the country’s labour laws. The companies involved in the cases were not named.

One of the cases involved a courier firm that fired an employee who refused to work from 9am to 9pm, six days per week – a schedule that has come to be known as 996. The schedule was written in the company’s rules, but a labour arbitration commission found it to be a violation of Chinese law. The company was ordered to pay 8,000 yuan (US$1,234) to the employee as compensation for illegally terminating the labour contract and not offering proper compensation for overtime work.

China’s Big Tech urged to follow Karl Marx’s lead, get rid of 996 culture

The publication of the cases has fanned speculation about whether authorities will start to take a firmer stance against technology companies regarding labour law violations. The 996 culture has been a staple in China’s tech sector for years, especially among start-ups racing to scale up in the highly competitive market.

In extreme cases, young employees have died after working excessively long hours.

In a case that renewed debate on the topic early this year, a 22-year-old female employee at e-commerce giant Pinduoduo died in the early hours of December 29 after working late into the night. Pinduoduo confirmed the tragedy on January 4. The labour authority of Changning district in Shanghai, where Pinduoduo is registered, launched an investigation into the e-commerce company, but it has not announced any results.

Under China’s labour law, 996 working hours could still be legal if not used as a consistent schedule. The law allows for a maximum of three hours of overtime per day, which would make a 12-hour shift legal when accounting for a one-hour lunch break. However, it also caps overtime work at 36 hours per month.

“So 996 isn’t illegal if the employee gets extra pay, but it can’t surpass the maximum overtime hours,” said Yang Chunhui, a labour dispute lawyer from the Beijing Yunting Law Firm.

Currently, labour oversight remains lax. China does not allow independent labour unions, so employees sometimes tacitly accept arrangements involving extra hours for extra money.

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More recently, disillusioned workers and a crackdown from Beijing on the country’s tech sector has resulted in a cultural shift that has tech giants cutting hours for employees. Game developer Lightspeed & Quantum Studios, a subsidiary of Tencent Holdings, announced in June a new policy requiring employees to go home before 6pm on Wednesdays.
ByteDance, owner of TikTok and its Chinese version Douyin, this month ended an arrangement requiring employees to work a six-day week every fortnight, known as a “big week, small week” rotation. Douyin’s short video rival Kuaishou Technology ended the practice in July.

However, interviews with some employees suggest reception to the change has been mixed. Some have applauded it, but others complain about fewer working hours resulting in reduced income. Overtime pay can be double or even triple normal hourly wages.

Some workers said that, despite the official policy changes, they still had to work on weekends, and workloads have not been reduced.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Warnings may signal state scrutiny of ‘996 culture’
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