Chinese tech workers are protesting long work hours, and they’ve taken the fight to GitHub. If you checked GitHub’s trending list in recent days, you may have seen a repository called 996.ICU — a reference to working from 9 AM to 9 PM for 6 days a week.
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Instead of code, the repository holds a collection of workplace grievances against China’s biggest and most well-known tech companies, including Alibaba, Huawei, Bye dance, DJI, and others.
“The tech industry in China is very stressful, employees put in long hours and is highly competitive,” says China Labor Watch’s executive director Li Qiang. He elaborates: “Previously, we received some complaints from employees at tech companies."
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However, it was difficult to provide assistance, as their wages are actually much higher than the minimum wage standard and they willingly put in overtime hours due to the competitive environment. If they do not put in the hours, they can easily just be laid off.
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It can be said that the starting and rapid development of some Internet technology industries is based on a large number of programmers, project managers and operation staff working hard for a long time or even working overtime.
Nevertheless, the development of the tech industry at the expense of normal life and rest time of employees is not sustainable. It will not only lay hidden dangers for the health of employees but also fail to improve in the future of an industry.
In recent years, I often hear such news that the programmer of xx Internet company, due to long-term overtime work and excessive physical fatigue, without timely rest, some of them died suddenly because of paroxysmal disease. This news really sounds very sad.
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Unexpectedly, according to the Guardian, China does better surprisingly by its workers on overtime than the UK and US do.
Overtime? What overtime? There is no overtime in the UK. Instead, employers can offer their hardworking employees additional time off, known as time off in lieu.
In Canada, overtime regulations differ by jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions have work weeks that are 40 hours and others are 44 hours long. On Prince Edward Island, employees have to work 48 hours a week before qualifying for overtime.
Any hours worked over 35 a week have to be paid at an overtime rate. The first eight hours of overtime must be paid at 1.25 times a worker’s normal wage and after that at 1.5 times the usual wage.
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The French are only allowed to work 10 hours a day. They can work 12 only under a collective agreement. However, they must not work more than 48 hours a week.
Some write the comment, “tech workers are drained before 30.” Although it is just a joke, which also alerts the relevant companies that “ if you only work without life, there is no happiness although you get a high salary.”
The “996 working system” should not become the normalcy in any industry, not just Internet companies. 
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Ref |The Verge
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