The Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security have jointly warned employers not to break the law by making their employees work too many hours.

According to the Labor Law, an employee should work no more than eight hours a day and should not work more than 44 hours a week. In case of need, an employee can be made to work one extra hour every day. Even for special reasons, the extra hours should not exceed 36 a month.

Unfortunately, in reality too many enterprises require their employees to work extra hours much more than stipulated by the law. Typically internet companies require their staff to follow a"996" schedule, namely working from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm every day for six days a week.

The enterprises have many tricks for doing this, of which two are the most common. The first is to require staff to "voluntarily" sign a "hardworking agreement", in which employees "willingly" agree to give up extra pay for working extra hours or even working during the weekends. The second is to simply dismiss anybody who dares to say "no" when required to work the extra hours demanded.

It should be stressed that both practices are illegal and companies guilty of breaking the law deserve legal penalties. The "hardworking agreement" signed by an employee, however "voluntarily", is only a scrap of useless paper when it comes to the law because it is against the basic principle of "fairness".

Those companies which dismiss an employee for refusing to work extra hours will have to pay fines and compensation if sued in court. However, in reality, many employees lack the courage to take their cases to court because it takes too long and they fear it might be difficult to land another job.

That's why the move of the Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security is significant. They have clearly sent a signal that such illegal deeds will not be tolerated. The move should encourage more employees to turn to the law when their rights are violated.