China’s Sichuan province takes tough stance on overtime work

This comes as China’s top court has ruled that the “996” overtime work policy – where employees work from 9am to 9pm for six days a week – is illegal.

The Department of Human Resources and Social Security of Sichuan has said it adopts a “zero tolerance” stance on work cultures which violates labour laws and will mete out maximum penalties to those who have severely breached such laws. Violators of the laws will have to rectify their work practices within a time limit.

The regulations of the State Council states that employees can work for no more than eight hours per working day but are able to exceed this amount under certain circumstances.

According to Article 41 of the China Labor Law, employers may extend working hours for the needs of the production and business operation after consultation with the trade union and employees. However, the extended working hours shall generally not exceed one hour per day.

If the extension is prolonged due to special reasons, the extended hours shall not exceed three hours one day, and the total extension shall not exceed 36 hours in one month, according to Global Times.

READ: China created 11.33 million jobs in urban areas in first ten months of 2021

On August 26, 2021, the Supreme People’s Court and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security jointly released a guideline illustrating 10 typical cases of overtime work across a wide range of sectors – from tech to the media and construction, all of which were won by employees.