China's Supreme People's Court said the overtime practice of "996", working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week, is illegal, taking aim at the controversial policy that is common among many Chinese technology firms.
China's top court and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on Thursday published guidelines and examples on what constituted as overtime work, saying they were focusing on the issue as it had attracted widespread attention recently.
It outlined 10 court cases - including but not limited to the tech industry - in which employees were forced to work extra hours, or put in harm's way.
In one case, an unidentified tech firm asked employees to sign agreements to give up overtime pay, which the court ruled unlawful.
In another, a media staffer passed out in the office restroom at 5.30am before dying of heart failure. The court ruled the death work-related and asked the company to pay the victim's family about 400,000 yuan.
Last month, TikTok owner ByteDance on Friday said that it would formally end its weekend overtime policy from Aug. 1, two weeks after its short-video rival Kuaishou announced a similar decision.
The court and ministry's criticism of "996" also comes amid a wide ranging Beijing-led regulatory crackdown on country's technology giants that has targeted issues from monopolistic behaviour to consumer rights.
