China's workers who are putting in long hours of unpaid overtime
or being required to work through the coming week-long holiday are
starting to wonder if their bosses have forgotten what May Day
commemorates.
The holiday is in remembrance of the 1886 protests by 200,000
workers in Chicago, the United States who demanded better working
conditions including an eight-hour working day.
Yet in China's urban areas, more and more workers are being
required to put in extra hours whether they want to or not and then
finding their pay docked if they miss a half day.
Zhu Mingqian, 25, is a typically stressed professional who puts
in many extra hours. He is a certified public accountant working
for a firm in Nanjing, capital city of the booming
Jiangsu Province in east China.
He will be taking his laptop computer home with him to stay on
top of his work load throughout the holiday week.
"Even with overtime, I can barely finish my assignments.
Although my company has an eight-hour work day, it is never
enforced," complained Zhu, who says he has to volunteer for the
overtime which has become part of his daily routine.
The situation is worse for Shan Qiang, a 28-year-old rural
migrant who is required to put in 10-hour days for a singing and
dance troupe in the city of Tianjin in north China.
"We wish we could enjoy an eight-hour day but most of my
colleagues never get to do so," Shan said.
According to a research report on China's migrant workers, which
was released in mid April by the policy research institute under
the State Council, migrant workers usually put in long hours at
very labor intensive jobs. Most work for more than eight hours a
day and many work more than 10 hours a day.
The group the researchers studied showed only 13.7 percent
worked for no more than eight hours a day, 40.30 percent worked
eight to nine hours, 23.48 percent put in nine to 10 hours a day
and 22.50 percent worked more than 10 hours.
Experts attributed the phenomena to accelerated
industrialization, rapid economic growth and mounting employment
pressure.
According to the 36th article of China's Law of Labor, work time
should not exceed 8 hours a day and 44 hours a week. If overtime is
necessary, the employer must ask the trade union for its agreement
and it must be on a volunteer basis and should not exceed three
hours a day.
"Under the protection of the Law, many Chinese people can enjoy
the eight-hour work day if they are unwilling to work extra hours,"
said Zhang Haitao, deputy head of the social security department of
the general trade union of Jiangsu.
"However, some employers fail to abide by the Law, and some
employees opt for overtime voluntarily."
The Beijing Bureau of Statistics said employed people in China's
capital worked for 5.9 days, or 47.2 hours, a week on average. Most
of the employees in labor-intensive businesses and the service
trade worked for more than six days a week.
A well-known job-hunting Website, www.zhaopin.com, conducted an
online survey of 15,000 people recently. The survey found that
approximately 40 percent of the respondents worked extra hours
voluntarily.
Volunteering for extra hours also conforms to Chinese
traditional values on diligence and hard work.
However, these values which were first taught by Confucius
thousands of years ago may be having a "negative effect" in China's
fast-paced modern society, said Prof. Du Wendong, a psychologist
with the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
High pressure and extreme overtime are the culprits of
bad-health, Du said.
The Chinese Medical Association recently conducted a random
survey of 330,000 people in 33 cities. The findings show 70 percent
of Chinese people complained of fatigue, insomnia and appetite
disorders.
"Trading leisure for money can actually mean more losses,"
Professor Du said.
Dai Dengkai agrees that less may mean more in the long run. He
is with a labor monitoring organization in Nanjing.
"The eight-hour work day was set in accordance with people's
normal physical strength. It conducive for businesses to ensure
workers' physical and mental health," said Dai.
Trade Unionist Zhang Haitao called for employers to set proper
work and rest schedules and give their employees reasonable
assignments.
Du Wendong suggested that laborers should keep a proper balance
between work and rest, and that trade unions and labor monitoring
organs should prompt employers to abide by the labor law.
(Xinhua News Agency May 1, 2006)