E-Commerce Employee In China Dies Of Overworked Work

Photo illustration (Sergey Zolkin / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The death of a 22-year-old employee due to excessive workload sparked protests from netizens in China. A buzz on social media.

As of Wednesday, January 6, the news of the death of the employee of the e-commerce company Pinduoduo has been viewed 780 times. The content also drew fierce comments on Chinese social media Weibo.

Pinduoduo reportedly has responded to the death of its employees on official accounts. They claim that all the lowest-level employees face a "live for the money" situation and it is not a problem of capital, but a social problem.

However, Pinduoduo denied any response that had already received criticism from netizens. Pinduoduo earlier last week confirmed that his employee died after receiving first aid since he was found fainted after work until 01.30 local time or 00.30 WIB.

A man claiming to be a Pinduoduo employee on Weibo posted a comment that he worked until 2 or 3 in the morning. Employees protested against the company last year because of the limited number of toilets. There are only eight toilets with a number of employees reaching a thousand people.

Not the first time

Meanwhile, Chinese broadcast media reported that employee deaths due to excessive workload are not the first time this has happened. On December 19, 2020, a 47-year-old Shanghai Shangtang Techology employee suddenly died outside the fitness equipment company premises.

Previously on December 4, 2020, a 27-year-old Gome Electric Fuzhou Branch employee died suddenly while attending a year-end meeting. The families of the two victims stated that the results of forensic tests indicated that both died as a result of being overworked.

The internet industry Kuaishou announced a "big week and small week" policy model for all its employees that takes effect from January 10, 2021. The policy means working five or six days per week.

ByteDance as the manager of TikTok has also implemented this model. Pinduoduo enforces six working days per week.

Since 2019, employees of internet companies in China have reported “996 incidents” of resisting the forced overtime system. Huawei, Alibaba, Ant Financial, JD.com, 58.com, Suning, Pinduoduo, DJI, and many other internet companies were all on the employee report list.

The "996 incident" refers to a work system from 9am to 9pm, with 6 working days a week and only one hour of rest. That means employees work more than ten hours per day.

"Overtime work is very frequent and without additional money. Many colleagues just come home after 10 p.m. Sometimes there is not much work, but if the team head does not come home until 10 pm, none of the employees will dare to go home early," said Ma Lishen, an employee of an internet company in Shanghai when interviewed by CGTN.

Prof Shen Jianfeng from the Faculty of Law of the Central University of Finance and Economics stated that the 996 system works in violation of the working hour restriction regulations. To protect employees' physical and mental health, the Chinese government has implemented a system of working eight hours per day or 44 hours per week, Prof Shen was quoted as saying by Legal Daily.