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Is the 996 working hours system still a thing? (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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If someone doesn't know what I'm referring to, 996 refers to working 9am-9pm 6 days a week, which some Chinese companies enforce (or enforced) on their employee. Jack Ma, for example, has spoken in support of it.

Wikipedia says that the Supreme People's Court deemed it illegal in 2021. I don't know about China's court system in detail (or any country's, really) but my understanding is that cases go to a higher court if someone successfully appeals the decision of a lower court. Shouldn't something like a 72 hour workweek be stricken down before reaching the supreme court?

I've heard that Huawei still enforces this, for example. I don't have sources because I've heard it from someone with Chinese acquaintances, so some fact-checking is appreciated.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Like I've mentioned, some factory jobs have low barrier to entry, having two people work normal hours instead of one working extra long hours would mean that the two people would each get less income, while the factory would have to pay social insurance for an extra person (if they do pay for social insurance in the first place).

You might have misunderstood what I'm saying, there aren't enough "good" jobs for people who have undergone higher education, they are more reluctant to take jobs that have low barrier to entry, whether it's because those jobs aren't in the same field they took a degree in, or they think they're too "good" for those jobs.

At this point maybe you'd ask why don't corporations just raise the basic income for existing 996 jobs, well there's the problem isn't it!