OREANDA-NEWS. The six-day 12-hour schedule, from 9 am to 9 am, is a serious violation of labor laws, according to a joint memorandum by the Supreme People's Court and China's Ministry of Human Resources. The document refers to 10 court decisions in connection with disputes over refining in technology companies.

One of these lawsuits, writes the Protocol edition, was filed by a courier of an unnamed company, who was fired for disagreeing with the "996" schedule imposed by the employer. Under current Chinese law, processing per month should not exceed 36 hours, but in the case of a six-day 12-hour schedule, it goes up to 128 hours.

Until now, the Chinese authorities have not attempted to combat illegal employers' practices, although the "996" timetable has always violated labor law provisions. For many Chinese firms, especially in the IT industry, the constant rework has been the key to rapid growth - a blessing that Alibaba founder Jack Ma called it.

However, in recent months, amid antitrust cases, criticism in the state media and bans on the IT sector, many companies have considered it good to abandon the practice of aggressive exploitation of employees. In addition, several processing-related deaths have attracted public attention.