Von unserer chinesischen AnwältingFrau Dr.Liu: Many foreign employers who operating in China believe: It´s usual to expect the China-based employees work overtime unpaid whenever needed to get the job done. And if an employee refuses to work overtime as directed, this person could be disciplined or even fired easily. In fact this is quite the contrary to the China´s labor laws, which stipulate most employees in China can work only under the standard working hours system. They are limited to 8 working hours each day, 40 hours each week. Any other additional hours must be compensated. Employers are strictly forbidden to force their employees to work overtime unless otherwise specified in laws. It gets even worse when the employer intends to discipline or fire the employee for refusing the overtime work. This is going to cause one foreign employer getting punished or even caught by the Chinese authority.
The right way to deal with the overtime hours in China is: The employer needs to give the employee prior notice and get the employee´s consent to work overtime. The overtime compensation shall be agreed by both sides. And then one employer is entitled to discipline action against any unreasonable rejection of overtime hours. Thus a well-crafted and China appropriate set of internal labor rules and regulations for a foreign owned Chinese company or joint venture which suggests the aforementioned steps to deal with the overtime hours is strongly recommended.
