Employees in China are overworked

It might not be long before China’s workers voice their dissatisfaction about their working hours, just like their counterparts in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Not only do most professionals locally have fewer paid leave days than employees in other countries, they are clocking in extremely long working hours - averaging 51.4 hours a week in the country's lodging and catering industry, for example.

These were the findings from a recent report by Beijing Normal University.

“The report on the development of the labour market says that China's laws on working hours per week are similar to those in other countries, but employees at companies in 90% of industries must labour more than 40 hours per week,” Caixin Online reported. 

It added most Chinese workers get five days of paid leave every year, and can only take it after working a year first.

In addition, workers get 20 days of paid leave only after working more than 20 years.

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“Chinese staff are estimated to work between 2,000 and 2,200 hours a year, a rate comparable to those in developed Western countries from a hundred years ago,” the university's report found, as on The Nangfang Insider.

More than 26,000 workers also suffered occupational diseases last year, with nearly three-quarters of these working in the coal mining, non-ferrous metals, mechanics and constructions sector.

Great work pressure has also led to more workers suffering from depression, with some even committing suicide.

To add on to these working woes, employees in China are also grappling with significantly long commute times to and from their work stations.

The average commute in Beijing was found to be a whopping 97 minutes, followed by Guangzhou (92.2), Shanghai (89.8), and Shenzhen (89.2), according to the report.

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