'Let employees rest and vacation': China labels '996' work culture as illegal
China 996 work culture
In a surprising move against leading technology firms, China’s Supreme Court has declared 9 am to 9 pm working hours as an illegal practice.
Majority of the Chinese technology companies unofficially ask their employees to work 9 am to 9 pm for six days a week. However, China’s Supreme Court and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security have now declared this practise as illegal in their newly published guidelines.
"Recently, extreme overtime work in some industries has received widespread attention," the Supreme People's Court wrote in its statement, which it issued with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.
Supreme Court has ordered companies to let employees 'rest and vacation', adding that companies who go against the order will face strict measures.
The practise, commonly known as '996' in China has increasingly become popular but has also attracted criticism from several other parts of the world. Authorities criticised big tech firms for making long working hours a code of honour.
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In the past, several top level executives have labelled the 996 work culture as an idle work environment. Jack Ma, the celebrated entrepreneur had also once labelled the 996 culture as a 'blessing'and had asked his employees to always be prepared to pull extra weight in form of long working hours.
"To be able to work 996 is a huge bliss,"Maonce said, as quoted by western media. "If you want to join Alibaba, you need to be prepared to work 12 hours a day. Otherwise, why even bother joining?"
The Supreme Court used several examples of several Chinese companies promoting the '996' work culture. The officials also narrated an example of an unnamed tech firm that made its employees sign an agreement to give up their overtime pay but asked employees to work overtime on a daily basis.