China warns of overtime dangers after 22-year-old worker collapses on her way home from long shift

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency has urged the country's tech sector to tackle the culture of working many hours overtime, after a young employee at a leading e-commerce company collapsed and died on her way home from the office.

A 22-year-old female employee of e-commerce firm Pinduoduo suddenly collapsed last week while she was walking back to her home after midnight, and later died. According to Chinese media, the woman apparently suffered stomach pains before collapsing. An investigation has been lodged against the company by Shanghai authorities.

The case of the young woman has been taken as an example of the potential health impacts of long working days, as people on Chinese social media sites voiced their objections to big tech companies that compel employees to work extra hours. 

According to the South China Morning Post, hashtags about the incident on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo drew more than 190 million views as of Monday.

Last week’s incident refocused attention on "the pain of an abnormal culture of overtime," Xinhua said in a brief editorial posted on Tuesday on its Weibo account.

“Dreams should be pursued through striving, but workers' legitimate rights and interests should not be sacrificed and employers may be breaking the law in encouraging health-sapping overwork,” Xinhua News said.

"Strengthening the protection of legal rights and interests for workers, letting those chasing their dreams run along in a healthy manner and introducing more warmth into the development of enterprises — that's the form striving should take," the news agency said.

Gruelling hours have long been a hallmark of China's tech industry, heralded by business luminaries such as Alibaba's Jack Ma, one of China's richest and most prominent entrepreneurs. Ma drew controversy in 2019 by endorsing the "996" week, entailing working from 9am to 9pm Monday through Saturday, with many arguing that would further discourage young people from marrying and having children.

The ruling Communist Party's flagship People's Daily newspaper even weighed in at the time, saying it was unfair of dictatorial managers to demand excessive overtime.

Worldwide, the tech sector is known for demanding long hours spent designing, coding and processing customer requests. While Chinese labour law limits the work week to five days and no more than 44 hours, increasing numbers of people work outside the state sector or in the informal economy where such regulations tend not to be adhered to as closely.

China also outlaws independent labour organising, allowing only one union, the tightly party-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

Additional reporting by agencies