China’s internet industries already were known for long, demanding days. With millions of families confined at home, demand surged and employees delivered tons of vegetables, rice, meat, diapers and other supplies, often aboard scooters that exposed them to sub-freezing winter cold.
For white-collar workers in the technology industry, pay is better than in some industries but employees are often expected to work 12 hours a day or more.
The human cost caught public attention after the deaths of two employees from e-commerce platform
Renewed concerns over dire working conditions for delivery drivers also came to the forefront when a video circulated on Chinese social media showing what it said was a driver for
The controversy is a blow to the image of internet industries that are transforming China’s economy and generating new jobs. They have made some of the founders among the world’s wealthiest entrepreneurs. During the heights of the pandemic, the fortunes of the biggest, including
In a video widely circulated on Chinese social media, 45-year-old delivery driver
Details of Liu's complaint could not be verified and Eleme did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Separately, a 43-year-old delivery driver collapsed on the job and died last week while delivering food for Eleme.
The company said in a statement that it will give
The issue was highlighted again after a
The deaths raised an outcry on social media, with many people suspecting that they were a result of overwork. Chinese social media users blasted the country's technology sector, criticizing not just
They also revived a national debate over the tech sector's so-called “996” working culture, in which employees often work from
“We must strive to succeed in pursuit of dreams, but the legitimate rights and interests of workers cannot be ignored or even violated,” said state-owned
The issue has also cast a spotlight on the working conditions of delivery drivers, who are under heavy pressure to get orders to customers quickly and at times make less than
As part of the gig economy, such delivery workers often do not get the benefits provided to full-time employees, such as social or medical insurance.
Since there are many people willing to work under those conditions, it is hard for employees to negotiate better pay and conditions.
Last August, the
“Labor unions need to become more effective, otherwise labor laws cannot be enforced,” said
Under China's labor laws, workers and laborers should work no longer than eight hours a day, or more than 44 hours a week on average. Total amount of overtime should not exceed more than 36 hours in a month, and should only be done “after consultation with the trade union and laborers”.
However, even though the labor laws exist, they are rarely enforced as employees become mired in a culture of overwork while striving for bonuses or in cases of delivery drivers, to eke out a living.
Delivery workers are part of a corporate culture where even white-collar employees in the technology sector work excessively long hours, Li noted.
“Employees who do not work overtime cannot survive in technology or white-collar jobs. Everyone is working overtime. If they do not work overtime, they will be terminated,” Li said.
Putting workers at an even bigger disadvantage, indemnity clauses are at times written into workers’ contracts in some industries, absolving a company from responsibility for death on the job and other such events, said Li of
“In Western countries, if an employee dies because of working overtime, then the legal and economic costs will be greater, and they are generally more restrained as the country’s laws will intervene,” said Li. “But in
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