On April 22, an NIO employee in Shanghai revealed that she had worked more than 500 hours of unpaid overtime within half a year, and had been admitted to the emergency room three times due to vomiting and diarrhea. The employee’s physical examination also found 21 health-related abnormalities.

However, NIO’s HR claimed that the employee worked overtime voluntarily and that NIO does not encourage overtime work, according to the recording provided by the employee of her communication with HR. After negotiation, NIO’s HR proposed that if the employee resigned, she would receive a total of 120,000 RMB (17,400 USD) in ‘compensation’, but the employee could no longer speak out. The employee refused this proposal. Now, NIO placed her on paid time off, but she is unable to log into her work computer or email, preventing her from collecting more evidence.

Moreover, the employee said that she joined NIO in Shanghai in 2020 and was responsible for product operations. From June 2022 to February 2023, she has been working overtime and has been complaining to the company about the overtime work.

China’s notorious ‘996’ corporate work culture

China’s labor laws define a standard work day as eight hours long, with a maximum of 44 hours a week, any work beyond that requires extra pay for overtime. This has been well enforced. Instead, many Chinese companies require their employees to work from 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week, also known as ‘996’.

Source: CNHubei