TikTok Owner ByteDance Mandates Shorter Working Hours

Zheping Huang
Mon, November 1, 2021


(Bloomberg) -- ByteDance Ltd. ordered its employees to end their day by 7 p.m., becoming one of the first tech companies in China to officially mandate shorter working hours.

Staff in China should only work from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Mondays to Fridays and will need to seek permission to stay beyond those hours at least one day in advance, according to an internal document on Monday that was seen by Bloomberg News. A representative for the TikTok and Douyin owner declined to comment.

The country’s grueling work pace -- known as “996” because employees often labor from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week -- was long celebrated by tech billionaires from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Jack Ma to JD.com Inc. founder Richard Liu. But it’s come under renewed scrutiny this year, fueled by deaths associated with overwork and a growing chorus of social media complaints. With President Xi Jinping calling on the country to work toward “common prosperity,” authorities have stepped up warnings against employers to refrain from unreasonable overtime and other violations.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says:

China’s “996” work ethic -- implying working hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week -- suggests 72-hour weeks have been typical at some companies. Courts are skeptical, and “996” may be at odds with labor laws in addition to being out of sync with President Xi Jinping’s “common prosperity” push. High turnover at Baidu and Bilibili may signal discontent with workaholic employers.

-- Matthew Kanterman and Tiffany Tam, analysts

Under the new policy, employees can apply to work overtime no more than 3 hours on a weekday or 8 hours on a weekend, according to the document. They will receive extra compensation of up to three times their normal wage for the overtime.

The new policy is the latest effort by ByteDance to improve worker welfare. Earlier this year, the social media giant, along with rival Kuaishou Technology, canceled an alternating system where employees just take one day off per week every two weeks.

A short-lived campaign last month saw some private sector workers, including those from ByteDance, come together to share their working hours in protest against the country’s excessive working culture.

Read more about the Worker Lives Matter campaign

Employers Can't Require People To Work 72 Hours A Week, China's High Court Says

August 30, 2021
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Commuters wait in line for public buses as they leave work in Beijing's business district on Aug. 27. China's Supreme People's Court has ruled that it's illegal for companies to subject employees to the practice known as "996," or working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week.Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

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

In recent years, several worker deaths have been linked to such schedules, which are 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 last summer, working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week — the schedule that has become notorious under the shorthand "996" label.

Under Chinese law, monthly overtime totals are essentially limited to 36 hours. Zhang refused to work illegal amounts of overtime — as dictated by his schedule — and was fired. The courier company said Zhang failed to fulfill 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.
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The ruling presents a prominent rebuke to the 996 schedule, which in recent years has sparked online protests and criticism.

Dissatisfaction with the long work hours made headlines early this year 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 surpassing 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 centered on disputes that erupted after employers sought to use special agreements with their employees to circumvent labor laws.

Another case centers on a worker named Li, who the court said died from overwork in late 2018. The man worked for an employment service firm that sent him to work at an unidentified media company.

One year after he was hired, Li regularly worked about 300 hours or more each month. In a typical month, he was not given more than three days off work, a condition that the court said severely violated his right to rest.

Li fainted in a bathroom at work and died of a heart attack on Dec. 1 as he neared the end of a 12-hour overnight shift. His relatives sought compensation for his death as well as funeral expenses. In its ruling, the court affirmed that both the media company and the service company that directly hired Li bear joint responsibility for compensating the man's family.

The court acknowledged the intense competition that drives Chinese companies to maximize profits and cut labor costs. But, it added, extreme overtime harms workers' physical and mental health, their family life and their ability to pursue a social life.

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

The organizers 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)."

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China Spells Out How Excessive ‘996’ Work Culture is Illegal Zheping Huang Bookmark August 27 2021, 7:06 AM August 30 2021, 8:18 AM (Bloomberg) -- China has issued its most comprehensive warning yet against the excessive-work culture that pervades the country’s largest corporations, using real and richly detailed court disputes to address a growing backlash against the punishing demands of the practice

Read more at: https://www.bloombergquint.com/global-economics/china-s-top-court-says-excessive-996-work-culture-is-illegal
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