Chinese programmers use GitHub as a 'battlefield' to oppose harsh working conditions

Many Chinese technology workers are actively fighting to oppose harsh working conditions, including a long working time, up to 10-12 hours per day, making them almost exhausted, and GitHub is the chosen place as the 'rebellion base'.

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996.ICU archive

If you check the list of trends on GitHub in recent days, it is easy to come across a repository named 996.ICU, which is a reference repository that mentions the rules to do work from 9 am to 9 pm every day, and so on for 6 days a week - regulations on working hours that many programmers in the world's most populous country have to comply with, The time that helped 'help' many of them had to be hospitalized for special care because of exhaustion. Instead of containing the code as usual on GitHub, this archive includes a collection of workplace dissatisfaction among China's largest and most famous technology companies, including Alibaba, Huawei, Bytedance. , DJI and some other billion-dollar technology businesses.

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Previously, this repository was first posted by a developer (anonymous) on the popular social networking platform in China, V2EX, saying that such a stressful schedule makes programmers like he even 'doesn't have time to rest, let alone spend time with other family members'.

Because it is an open repository, anyone who encounters the same situation as an anonymous programmer can contribute 'documents' to the trouble that they are facing. In order for your 'suffering' document to be accepted, the sender must clearly state the actual situation, and in particular give evidence (usually in the form of posts on social networking sites or news). , but sometimes also include internal corporate documentation) about the problem you are having.

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Developers responsible for maintaining the repository warn users not to take screenshots directly of company internal data to avoid identity detection, which can affect work or even is my safety. In addition, information contributors are also encouraged not to give false information to disadvantage businesses. If such information is detected, they will be immediately removed and the poster may 'be in trouble'. This archive has received a lot of attention from the community in recent days, leading to versions being translated into English, Hindi, Spanish, Russian, Irish Gaelic, languages Persian and many other languages ​​have also appeared.

Back to the problem of working time. Chinese developers said Huawei - one of the nation's largest IT businesses - encouraged workers to voluntarily reduce their salaries, overtime and leave in exchange for money. Higher annual rewards, this information is presented with the evidence that an official article was published in 2010. Besides, this article also mentions the case of an IT staff member who broke out. died on the desk in 2006 due to physical weakness due to overwork, and the incident of two other programmers who committed suicide in 2008 due to 'too much work pressure, so unbearable . Since then, although the story is a bit vague about the way, the wave of skepticism that Huawei has "exploited" its employees excessively has also risen. Huawei declined to respond to press comments on this issue.

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An internet user named Liu Xuan later brought the case to the world's largest Chinese Q&A website, Zihu, and accompanied the question: 'Is it in the eyes of some employers, hiring one? employees are like buying a machine - they wish we could work 24 hours a day, continuously all week and only allow us to spend time 'refueling' (eating)? ' A total of 465 users expressed sympathy for Liu's question.

When workers 'get' treated like the hard worker ants

Similarly, many developers have accused Alibaba of promoting the working culture, where employees voluntarily make 996 more hours per year. According to an article in 2018, in fact, although Alibaba doesn't really force its employees to work overtime, everyone is willing to do it in exchange for a better bonus in a environment where competition is extremely high. 'After seeing these terrible numbers from Alibaba's overtime working culture, you will sooner or later have to quit!', That is a comment from a user named Wryly in the article 'Workers here are really treated like ants' (temporary workers are treated like ants), posted on the Github archive. Alibaba declined to comment on the story.

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It is not clear who made the decision to monitor complaints in GitHub, but those who file complaints should definitely be kept anonymous. In fact, GitHub is an important resource for technology companies in the United States and China, providing access to a myriad of open source code for developers to build their own projects. Therefore, any attempt to block this site may result in much more damage to businesses than employees. Remember in 2013, when GitHub was blocked in China for a few days, former Google Chinese CEO Kai-Fu Lee had to criticize the authorities 'strict censorship policy:' Blocking GitHub It is completely absurd, and will only make the problem more out of control, while causing significant losses in the competitiveness and development of businesses and developers'.

If the 996.ICU repository is taken down, users can easily create previous backups. 'And even if GitHub is censored in some way, users can still switch to accessing similar services like GitLab,' said security researcher Victor Gevers, who works for the team. GDI nonprofit, and previously discovered a number of Chinese secret databases said. Of course, it does not exclude the possibility that GitHub will have to adhere to all requests from the Chinese government in exchange for not being blocked in the world's most populous country.

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'As we all know, Github is owned by Microsoft. Therefore, a bit of 'complaints' from the Chinese government will be able to make this repository quickly disappear from Github because Microsoft will simply do everything it can to keep a good business relationship in the country. This, as they did with the Bing search engine, 'Victor Gevers commented. After the departure of famous 'countrymen' like Google, Facebook and Youtube in China, Bing continues to operate in this market because it has accepted to comply with the request for content censorship from the authorities. blame. GitHub has not yet commented on the comment.

Technology companies on the list are being closely monitored

Chinese labor law stipulates that employees will not have to work more than 8 hours per day and no more than 36 hours of overtime per month. In addition, businesses also have to pay their employees 150% of their regular salary for an hour, they do extra work, 200% of their regular salary when they work on holidays, and 300% of their regular salary when they have to work on national holidays, such as Lunar New Year. Many Chinese programmers are accusing that technology companies named in the 996.ICU archive have violated labor laws, because they are rarely paid overtime as prescribed by law.

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Mary Gallagher, professor of political science, and director of the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan, said gaps exist around the country's labor laws, and holes That vulnerability has been exploited by many businesses as well as thoroughly exploited. According to local regulations or by employers themselves, employees can be classified as part of the standard system included in China's labor law, or they can be considered as employees work on a seasonal basis, or work during overtime hours prescribed. 'For example, local governments and employers can abuse the labor classification system in technology by implicitly regulating ordinary employees as senior managers. After that, these employees will have to work long hours without being paid more, while the company still does not violate labor laws, 'explained Professor Mary Gallagher.

In fact, workers in China are rarely protected by trade unions, if they do, they are only very passive in helping workers protect their rights. However, it must be said again, trade unions or labor law fighters also face many difficulties in intervening to help workers, because most of the overtime jobs are usually okay. done voluntarily, at least formally.

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'If they don't work overtime, they risk being laid off.'

The high-tech industry in China is booming, leading to enormous stresses and pressures on the environment and working conditions, resulting in employees working a lot every day, in one The environment is highly competitive and eliminating, 'said Li Qiang, executive director of the China Labor Watch. At the same time, Mr. Li also explained: 'Previously, we received some complaints from employees at many large technology companies on this issue. However, it is difficult to provide them with support solutions, because the salaries of these employees are actually significantly higher than the minimum wage standards in China, and they are willing to take the hours doing more makes our own advantage in a competitive environment. If certain overtime hours are not achieved, these employees are at high risk of being dismissed (in the employment contract that many Chinese technology companies have signed with their employees, there are usually provisions if If they do not meet their performance goals, they will be fired) '.

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Long time working in a stifling competitive environment is not a problem that only Chinese tech workers face, and they are not as harsh as some exaggerated stories of abuse that companies Factory personnel in China and abroad suffer.

However, even after complaining about all the injustices in work and potential violations of China's labor laws, technology workers may still face other significant challenges to can change reality. Professor Gallagher pointed out the shortcomings in the rapid development of the Chinese economy in general and the IT sector in particular, and the general problems when it comes to legal reform: 'I think that with the economic downturn, the government seems to be "uninterested" in appeasing workers. In addition, technology workers may be much more difficult than production workers to maintain collective efforts in protests that require benefits. They seem to have only one viable option, that is, to find a different company with compensation, a better working environment, or quit a job. '

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Indeed, there was a detailed list of companies that set their employees' hours more appropriately, stored in the third-largest search database on GitHub, named 955.WLB. Specifically, companies on this list usually only regulate working hours from 9 am to 5 pm, 5 days a week so employees can balance life and work better, can tell to some famous names like WeWork, Google, Microsoft, Intel, IBM and HP - all have offices in China. You can see many of the companies listed in the archive 955. WWB are foreign businesses, but there are also some big Chinese technology companies that make the list, including Douban ( a social media network likened to Pinterest of China. 955.WB can be considered a complete opposite of 996.ICU, and is a 'salvage plan' for programmers who are trying to escape from the oppressive and injustice they are facing. face in the current working environment.