'996' work culture (working 9am to 9pm six days a week) ruled as illegal in China

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China's top court and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security published guidelines last week of different examples that would be seen as overtime work.

As reported by Reuters, China's '996' work culture, also known as the culture of working from 9am to 9pm, six days a week), has been deemed illegal by China's Supreme People's Court.

In fact, China's top court and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security published guidelines last week of different examples that would be seen as overtime work.

"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. Workers deserve rights for "rest and vacation," adding that "adhering to the national working hour system is the legal obligation of employers," the court wrote.

The court gave it's ruling after reviewing several instances where overtime work was deemed illegal. Including one case that saw an employee die at a media firm where they were forced to work long hours and a courier company that told employees to work 966 hours.

While the ruling is not restricted to the tech sector, the industry will be on high alert as working habits such as 996 have become commonplace in the tech sector.

Photo / 123RF 

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