| Overtime work practice such as “996” has been extremely prevalent in China, which imposes significant occupational hazards for Chinese laborers. This paper first examines the effectiveness of China’s labor laws and institutions in regulating excessive overtime work through a review of existing scholarly and legal literature. Then, the paper analyzes the limitations of the current labor law regime and proposes corresponding policy recommendations to improve the protection of labor rights. The paper suggests clarifying the definition of compelled overtime work, strengthening the burden of proof for employers, and increasing penalties for non-compliance of employers when it comes to revising the letter of the labor laws. The paper also recommends reforms in the Labor Arbitration System (LAS) and Labor Security Supervision (LSS), such as separating the LSS from local bureaucracies and building up effective legal aid services. The proposed strategies aim to balance the effectiveness and feasibility of a reform in the short term while avoiding radical but impractical proposals. The paper concludes that while the proposed approach might not definitively close the gap between law and workplace practices, enforcing these policy recommendations is still crucial to provide adequate protection for Chinese workers. |
