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.
I’m sure that if the solution was as simple as strictly and proactively enforcing labor laws, the government would be trying that, rather than build up discontent. Another possibility is that some local governments are turning a blind eye to top economic contributors in the region.
Having normal working hours for jobs that were previously 996 or even 007 might result in a significantly lower income due to lack of overtime pay. Examples of this are low-barrier factory jobs that basically pay the minimum income and a sizable portion of income comes from overtime hours. Other examples at the other end of the income spectrum, where high-paying tech jobs have even higher pay due to overtime hours.
This is probably a complicated topic that is affected by factors like having a large working population, not enough jobs to match the growing population of people who have undergone higher education, a developing socialist country that is still facing pressure from the international capitalists, or lots of things that I haven’t thought about.
In short, maybe the solution is really as simple as enforcing the law, maybe not, personally I think it’s a complicated issue.
This is exactly the thing you need to abolish 996, isn’t it? If there’s not enough jobs, then you can split one job between two people. Obviously it’s not that easy for every sector, but it should be feasible for factory work.
Which brings me to my next point: I guess 996 could be ignored if it’s only for the top tech companies and young people had other viable alternatives. A point of reference would be Silicon Valley. I’m aware they expect overtime there too, maybe less though, or maybe the same without a catchy name like 996, I don’t know. But if people working low income jobs are coerced to working overtime because their pay won’t be enough otherwise, then it seems like a big issue.