HONG KONG (AP) – E-commerce workers who fed China during the coronavirus pandemic, which made their billionaire bosses even richer, are so dissatisfied with their pay and treatment that one has only set himself on fire in protest.
China’s internet industries have long been well-known and demanding. With millions of families locked up at home, demand rose and workers delivered tons of vegetables, rice, meat, cloths and other supplies, often aboard scooters that exposed them to freezing winter cold.
For white-collar workers in the technology industry, pay is better than in some industries, but employees are often expected to work 12 hours a day or more.
The human cost has attracted the attention of the public following the deaths of two employees of the e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, which is known for selling fresh produce at low prices. Their deaths suggested they were overworked. As an indication of high-level concern, the official Xinhua News Agency called for shorter working hours, describing long hours of overtime at the expense of employees’ health as an “illegal” operation.
Renewed concerns about appalling working conditions for delivery managers also came to the fore when a video was circulated on Chinese social media showing what it says a driver for Ele.me, part of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, which set itself on fire sting to protest unpaid wages.
The controversy is a blow to the image of Internet industries that are transforming China’s economy and generating new jobs. They have made some of the founders the richest entrepreneurs in the world. During the height of the pandemic, the fortunes of the biggest, including Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Pinduoduo founder Colin Huang, have increased as online spending has skyrocketed.
In a video widely circulated on Chinese social media, 45-year-old delivery manager Liu Jin poured petrol and set himself on fire outside a distribution station for Eleme in the eastern city of Taizhou, shouting that he wanted his money. Others sniffed the flames and rushed to a hospital, where he is being treated for third-degree burns to his body.
Details of Liu’s complaint could not be confirmed and Eleme did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Separately, a 43-year-old delivery manager collapsed at work and died last week when he was delivering food to Eleme.
The company said in a statement that it would give 600,000 yuan ($ 92,700) to the driver’s family and increase its insurance coverage for drivers to that level. Eleme said in the statement that he “did not do enough in terms of accident death insurance, and that he should do more.”
The issue was re-emphasized after a Pinduoduo employee named Tan committed suicide after taking leave from the firm to return to his hometown, less than two weeks after a 22-year-old employee named Zhang collapsed in Urumqi as he walked away from work with colleagues. and later died.
Pinduoduo, China’s third-largest e-commerce company, said it was providing assistance and support to the families of the two employees who died. Authorities in Shanghai are also reviewing working hours, contracts and other conditions at the company.
The deaths caused a stir on social media, and many people suspected it was the result of overwork. Chinese social media users exploded the country’s technology sector, not only criticizing Pinduoduo for a long-standing culture, but also pointing out that it was a problem throughout the industry, with similar corporate cultures at most of the major technology enterprises in China.
They also revived a national debate about the so-called ‘996’ work culture, in which employees often work six days a week from 09:00 to 21:00. Businesses sometimes pay huge bonuses to some employees, enticing them to work more overtime.
“We must strive to pursue dreams, but the legal rights and interests of workers cannot be ignored or even violated,” the state-run Xinhua News Agency said in a report on the microblogging website Weibo.
The issue has also highlighted the working conditions of delivery managers, who are under great pressure to quickly get orders from customers and sometimes earn less than 10 yuan ($ 1.55) per delivery. If they do not meet the deadlines, the fines imposed can range from as little as 1 yuan ($ 0.15) to as much as 500 yuan ($ 77.30) if a customer files a complaint.
As part of the gig economy, such delivery workers often do not get the benefits that full-time employees offer, such as social or medical insurance.
Since there are many people who are willing to work under such conditions, it is difficult for employees to negotiate better pay and conditions.
Last August, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) – the only union legally allowed to exist in communist-ruled China – said 6.5 million delivery workers had joined since 2018. The labor rights group China Labor Bulletin, which monitors labor relations in China, says little has been done to improve workers’ ability to receive better treatment from enterprises. The union only offers skills training, legal aid and medical benefits.
“Trade unions need to become more effective, otherwise labor laws cannot be enforced,” said Li Qiang, founder of China Labor Watch, another labor rights organization.
According to China’s labor laws, workers must not work more than eight hours a day, or on average more than 44 hours a week. The total amount of overtime may not exceed 36 hours per month, and should only be done “after consultation with the union and laborers”.
Although labor laws exist, they are rarely enforced, as employees are trapped in a culture of overtime while striving for bonuses or in cases of delivery managers to earn their money.
Delivery workers are part of a corporate culture where even servicemen in the technology sector work excessively long hours, Li noted.
‘Employees who do not work overtime cannot work in technology or white collar. Everyone works overtime. “If they do not work overtime, they will be terminated,” Li said.
To put workers at an even greater disadvantage, indemnity clauses are sometimes written down in workers’ contracts in some industries, which exempt a company from liability for death at work and other such events, Li of China Labor Watch said. Although such clauses may violate China’s labor laws, the legal system in China is opaque and can be difficult to enforce.
“In Western countries, if an employee dies due to overtime work, the legal and economic costs will be greater and generally limited, as the laws of the land will intervene,” Li said. “But in China, there is no core of overtime work, and companies are generally not held accountable in the event of death.”
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Associated Press researcher Chen Si in Shanghai contributed to this report.