CBN-20210901

China Business Now丨20 percent pay-cuts for ByteDance workers as “996” is deemed illegalHi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.大家好，我是主持人李莹亮。Coming up on today’s program.重点提要-ByteDance pays workers 20% less as “996” work schedule is ruled illegal by Supreme Court;-Meituan faces regulatory trouble over Mobike acquisition;-Tencent terminates exclusive music agreements after regulatory action.Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours中国经济要闻The gruelling “996” work schedule is deemed illegal. But employees at short video giant ByteDance are having mixed feelings toward overtime working as they found their August pay-check shrank 20 percent. Company policies expecting staffs to work 12 hours a day, six days a week, is a serious violation of China’s labor law, the Supreme People’s Court and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security warned. According to the Labor Law, an employee works no more than eight hours a day and less than 44 hours a week. Extra hours should not exceed 36 a month in special case. However, companies always have a few tricks in their sleeves to skirt around the rules.One is to require staff to "voluntarily" sign an agreement to give up extra pay for working extra hours or even working during the weekends. The other is to simply dismiss anyone who dares to say "no". The public backlash against the excessive-work culture isn’t new. Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma described “996” as a “huge blessing” and drew strong criticism two years ago. In January, e-commerce company Pinduoduo faced an intense backlash over allegations that it overworks its staffs after its employee committed suicide.But on the other hand, hours cuts could mean a massive pay cut, for ByteDance offered double weekend daily wages for workers. And that’s the dilemma of time and pay.人社部、最高法明确“996”违法的首个发薪日，字节跳动的员工“哭”了。上月，快手、字节跳动、美团优选等互联网公司先后宣布取消“大小周”工作制，恢复双休。8月31日，是字节跳动取消“大小周”后的第一个发薪日。字节内网却“哀嚎”一片，不少字节员工都发现，自己的工资收入，相比以往有着不同程度的减少，不少人降了近20%。日前，人力资源社会保障部、最高人民法院联合发布了超时加班典型案例，进一步明确工时及加班工资法律适用标准，及时纠正用人单位违法行为，意味着“996”违法。所谓“996”，即包括互联网大厂在内的企业，要求员工每天工作12小时，每周工作6天的工作制。两年前，阿里巴巴创始人马云称为“996”工作制为“福报”，引起舆论一片哗然。今年一月，拼多多员工意外死亡事件，再次引起对过长劳动时间的讨论。根据劳动法规定，国家实行劳动者每日工作时间不超过8小时、平均每周工作时间不超过44小时的工时制度。因特殊原因需要延长工作时间的每天也不得超过3小时，每月不得超过36小时。而互联网公司往往“魔高一尺”，通过要求员工“自愿”签署“奋斗者协议”，说明自己是自愿主动加班，甚至是开除拒绝加班的员工。但对于实行了9年多“大小周”的字节而言，加班意味着员工在同样的工作时长里可以获得双倍工资，取消加班就等于变相降薪。“英年早秃”的打工人，双休到底“香”不“香”，恐怕也是一言难尽。Next on industry and company news产经消息及公司新闻China’s antitrust watchdog said that it is investigating a previous acquisition by food delivery platform Meituan. The investigation involves Meituan’s $2.7 billion deal in 2018 to acquire bike-sharing startup Mobike, the State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) said Monday in a statement. The announcement coincided with the release of Meituan’s second-quarter earnings report, in which the company warned that it may have to “make changes to its business practices and may be subject to a significant amount of fines.”据市场监管总局8月30日消息，市场监管总局对美团收购摩拜未依法申报开展调查工作。同日，美团在其发布的业绩公告“或然事项”中称，公司可能会被要求改变其商业惯例及或被处以高额罚款。Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings has terminated all its exclusive music copyright agreements after Chinese regulators barred it from such deals last month. Tencent said in a statement on Tuesday night it had notified the upstream copyright parties involved in such agreements, and will continue to cooperate and engage with these parties in a non-exclusive way.腾讯音乐周二晚间发布公告称，放弃与上游相关版权方音乐版权独家协议中有关音乐版权独家授权的权利。腾讯还表示，将在严格执行国家市场监督管理总局的处罚决定书的基础上，以非独家方式与上游版权方继续保持合作，并就非独家合作事宜与上游版权方进行协商。Xiaomi finished registration of its auto unit with registered capital of 10 billion yuan today. The new company Xiaomi Auto Ltd. has Lei Jun, the founder and CEO of Xiaomi, as its legal representative.小米汽车今天正式完成了工商注册，公司名为小米汽车有限公司，注册资金100亿元人民币，小米集团创始人、董事长兼CEO雷军亲自出任法人代表。Cosco Shipping Holdings, China's largest container shipping company published its earnings report on Monday. Net profit soared more than 30 times to 37.1 billion yuan in the first half from a year ago as the container shipping market continued to improve.8月30日，中远海运公布2021年中期业绩。2021年1至6月，公司实现归属于上市公司股东的净利润约为370.98亿元，同比增长30倍。China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group reported a 4.8 billion yuan loss on Monday, about twice as much as in 2020. The property developer’s electric car unit said its ballooning first-half loss may force it to delay the start of mass production.8月30日，恒大汽车在港交所披露2021年半年报业绩，上半年归母净利润亏损47.86亿元，同比下滑96.25%。恒大汽车表示，公司研发的恒驰汽车量产正进入最后冲刺阶段，假如在短期内缺乏进一步资金投入，新能源汽车量产时间表有可能需要推迟。Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market最后来看股市收盘情况Chinese stocks closed mixed on Wednesday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.65 percent, at 3567 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.1 percent lower at 14314 points. The Hang Seng Index closed 0.58 percent higher to stand at 26028 points. 周三A股股市涨跌不一，截至收盘，沪指涨0.65%，报收3567点；深成指跌0.1%，报收14314点。港股恒生指数涨0.58%，报收26028点。Biz Word of the Day财经词汇划重点Antitrust lawsare regulations that encourage competition by limiting the market power of any particular firm. This often involves ensuring that mergers and acquisitions don't overly concentrate market power or form monopolies, as well as breaking up firms that have become monopolies. 反垄断法是反对垄断和保护竞争的法律制度。反垄断法的实体法一般包括禁止垄断协议、控制企业合并、禁止滥用市场支配地位、反对行政垄断等。（欢迎大家提供意见和反馈，请联系主播李莹亮：[email protected]）Executive Editor: Sonia YUEditor: LI YanxiaWriter & Host: Stephanie LIProducer：XIANG XiufangSound Editor: Andy YUAN Ran ZHANGGraphic Designer: ZHANG YingCo-produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News & SFC Audio/Video Dept.Presented by SFC编委:  于晓娜策划、编辑：李艳霞 撰稿、播音：李莹亮监制：向秀芳 音频制作：袁思杰 张然设计：张颖21世纪经济报道海外部 南财音视频部  联合制作南方财经全媒体集团  出品（作者：李莹亮,实习记者张然 编辑：李艳霞）