HONG KONG (AP) – E-commerce workers who kept China fed during the coronavirus pandemic, making its multimillion-dollar bosses even richer, are so unhappy with their pay and treatment that one went into protest .
China’s internet industries were already known for long and demanding days. With millions of families confined to their homes, demand increased and employees delivered tons of vegetables, rice, meat, diapers and other supplies, often aboard scooters that exposed them to the freezing winter cold.
For tech industry workers, pay is better than in some industries, but employees are often expected to work 12 hours or more a day.
The human cost caught the public’s attention after the deaths of two employees of the Pinduoduo e-commerce platform, known for selling fresh produce at low prices. Their deaths sparked suggestions of overload. In an indication of high-level concern, the official Xinhua news agency called for a reduction in working hours, describing long overtime at the expense of employee health as an “illegal” operation.
Renewed concerns about the appalling working conditions of the delivery drivers also came to the fore when a video circulated on Chinese social media showing what was said to be a driver for Ele.me, part of the giant of the e-commerce Alibaba Group, which caught fire to protest without paying wages.
The controversy is a blow to the image of Internet industries that are transforming the Chinese economy and generating new jobs. They have formed some of the founders among the richest entrepreneurs in the world. During the heyday of the pandemic, the fortunes of the elders, including Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Pinduoduo founder Colin Huang, expanded as online consumer spending grew.
In a video spread on Chinese social media, 45-year-old delivery man Liu Jin spilled gasoline and burned himself in front of an Elme gas station in the eastern city of Taizhou, shouting that he wanted his money. . Others put out the flames and rushed him to a hospital, where he is being treated for third-degree burns to his body.
The details of Liu’s complaint could not be verified and Eleme did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Separately, a 43-year-old delivery man fell at work and died last week while delivering food for Eleme.
The company said in a statement that it will give 600,000 yuan ($ 92,700) to the driver’s family and raised insurance coverage for drivers to that level. His statement said Eleme “had not done enough in terms of accidental death insurance and needs to do more.”
The issue came to light again after a Pinduoduo employee, known as Tan, committed suicide after saying goodbye to the firm to return to his hometown, less than two weeks after an employee of 22 years, known as Zhang, in Urumqi, he collapsed while going home with his co-workers. and then he died.
Pinduoduo, China’s third-largest e-commerce company, issued statements in which it said it provided assistance and support to the families of the two employees who died. Shanghai authorities are also reviewing the company’s working hours, contracts and other conditions.
The deaths raised a cry on social media, and many people suspected they were the result of overwork. Chinese social media users criticized the country’s technology sector, criticizing not only Pinduoduo for a long-standing culture, but noted that it was an industry-wide problem, with company cultures similar to most of China ‘s largest technology companies.
They also revived a national debate on the so-called “996” work culture in the technology sector, in which employees often work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week. Sometimes companies pay huge bonuses to some employees, which attracts them to work more overtime.
“We must strive to succeed in the pursuit of dreams, but the legitimate rights and interests of workers cannot be ignored or even violated,” the state-owned Xinhua news agency said in a statement on the Weibo microblogging site.
The problem has also highlighted the working conditions of delivery drivers, who are under strong pressure for orders to reach customers quickly and sometimes earn less than 10 yuan ($ 1.55) per delivery. If they do not meet the deadlines, the fines imposed can range from 1 yuan ($ 0.15) to 500 yuan ($ 77.30) if a customer files a complaint.
As part of the concert economy, these delivery workers often do not get the benefits that are offered to full-time employees, such as social or medical insurance.
Because there are so many people willing to work in these conditions, it is difficult for employees to negotiate better wage conditions.
Last August, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the only union authorized to legally exist in communist-ruled China, said 6.5 million distribution workers had joined since 2018. However, the labor rights group China Labor Bulletin, which tracks labor relations in China, says little has been done to improve workers ’ability to get better treatment from companies. The union only offers skills training, legal assistance and some medical benefits.
“Unions need to be more effective, otherwise labor laws cannot be enforced,” said Li Qiang, founder of China Labor Watch, another organization that controls labor rights.
Under Chinese labor law, workers should not work more than eight hours a day, or more than 44 hours a week on average. The total amount of overtime should not exceed 36 hours a month and should only be done “after consulting the union and workers.”
However, while labor laws exist, they rarely apply as employees sink into a culture of overwork while struggling to get bonuses or in cases of delivery drivers to earn -is life.
Delivery workers are part of a corporate culture where even white-collar employees in the technology sector work excessively long hours, Li noted.
“Employees who do not work overtime cannot survive in technology or white-collar jobs. Everyone works overtime. If they don’t work overtime, they will be laid off, ”Li said.
Putting workers at an even greater disadvantage sometimes includes indemnity clauses in workers ’contracts in some industries, which exempt a company from liability for death in the workplace and other such events, he said. dir Li from China Labor Watch. While these clauses may violate China’s labor laws, the legal system in China is opaque and the laws can be difficult to enforce.
“In Western countries, if an employee dies due to overtime, the legal and economic costs will be higher and, in general, will be more moderate as the country’s laws come into play,” Li said. “But in China there is no end result when it comes to working overtime, and companies are generally not held responsible in the event of death.”
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Associated Press researcher Chen Si in Shanghai contributed to this report.