Death of 22-year-old Pinduoduo employee renews controversy over China’s 996 overwork culture, sparking an investigation
- News of a Pinduoduo employee’s death went viral online as netizens connected it to the Chinese tech industry’s brutal ‘996’ work schedule
- The e-commerce company did not mention the employee’s long working hours, but Shanghai authorities opened an investigation into the company’s labour conditions
A 22-year-old female employee at Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo died last week after working long hours past midnight, sparking an investigation into the company from Shanghai authorities and renewing discussions on social media about tech companies’ notorious “996” overwork culture.
Pinduoduo confirmed the death of an employee at its community group buying unit Duoduo Maicai in China’s western region of Xinjiang, according to a company statement on Monday. The employee, a woman surnamed Zhang who was born in 1998, collapsed at around 1:30am on December 29 while she was walking home from work with colleagues, the statement said. Her colleagues sent her to a nearby hospital, where she died six hours later, it said.
Before the company’s response, news of Zhang’s death had gone viral on Chinese social media, with many attributing the death to overwork despite the lack of evidence. On microblogging platform Weibo, hashtags about the incident drew more than 190 million views by time of publication. Another trending hashtag #996 – referencing the notorious work schedule of 9am to 9pm, six days a week – was already taken down from the platform.
Pinduoduo’s statement did not detail the reason for Zhang’s death or link it to her work, and there are no reports of a police investigation into the death. But by Monday evening, Shanghai’s local labour authority announced an investigation into Pinduoduo’s labour conditions without offering any additional details.
Pinduoduo declined to comment further for this story.
In its statement, the company said it sent colleagues to accompany Zhang’s parents when they arrived in Urumqi, adding that it did not make a public announcement to honour the parents’ wishes. Zhang’s body was cremated on January 3 with the consent of her parents, the company said.