[Beyond 8 Hours, Can I Go Offline? ②] Is Setting Up Groups Too Casual? How Should "Invisible Overtime" Be Compensated?

　　Reading Notes

　　Some workers say that, no one knows when it started, but there are more and more work-related WeChat groups. Every group is a kind of online work scenario, transmitting work pressure. Experts suggest that employees should be given the right to request leave online, allowing employees approved for leave not to follow, reply to, or handle messages in work groups.

　　Company-wide groups, branch company groups, department groups, project progress groups, customer feedback groups... Zhao Linlin, a store manager at a chain supermarket in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, has 38 work groups pinned on WeChat. Outside of work, her phone often rings nonstop. In March last year, overwhelmed, Zhao Linlin chose to resign and apply for overtime pay. Through court mediation, the company paid her 8,400 yuan in overtime pay.

　　Zhao Linlin is not the only workplace person whose life has been flooded by work groups. After work and during holidays, replying to WeChat work group messages that pop up at any time has become a new work scenario.

　　Beyond traditional work methods, whether other work-related activities that "link" to work—such as group check-ins, real-time reporting, daily maintenance, and task assignment—should be included in the recognition of "work" has become a topic of public concern.

　　Whether replying to messages in WeChat groups counts as overtime is difficult to define

　　When Zhao Linlin first joined the company in 2017, she did not feel that work groups were a burden; instead, she felt they made work more convenient. She does not know when it started, but setting up WeChat groups became increasingly casual. One group for one task, one group for one activity—every group is a kind of online work scenario, transmitting work pressure.

　　"Only 16 groups have message notifications muted; I don't dare mute the remaining internal company groups." Zhao Linlin told reporters that she was once criticized in a group for not replying to a message in time because she was doing laundry, and accumulating 3 such instances would result in a 200 yuan deduction from her salary. All work groups, large and small, are platforms for issuing work instructions, arranging work, supervising work, summarizing work, providing feedback, and exchanging information. In the groups, companies require employees not to simply reply "received," but to fully read and clarify the necessary information in the work groups and respond.

　　Zhao Linlin said she had handled work in work groups at midnight and had replied to group messages while supervising her son's homework. In April 2023, Zhao Linlin requested that the company pay 37,000 yuan in total for one year of extended overtime pay, rest-day overtime pay, and statutory holiday overtime pay. The labor arbitration committee did not support her request, and Zhao Linlin, dissatisfied with the ruling, filed a lawsuit in court.

　　The court held that, considering that Zhao Linlin's use of WeChat for work outside working hours exceeded the scope of ordinary simple communication and involved substantive labor content, clearly occupying her rest time, it should be recognized as overtime. Considering that Zhao Linlin could not provide proof of the duration of overtime, through mediation, the employer paid her 8,400 yuan in overtime pay.

　　However, some workers have not obtained overtime rights and interests despite performing labor in work groups. In November 2023, Chu Ze, a salesperson at a trading company in Dalian, applied to the local labor arbitration tribunal for overtime pay but was not supported.

　　The arbitration tribunal's reasoning was that overtime refers to an employer, based on production and operation needs, arranging for a worker to continue engaging in their own work beyond statutory working hours. Chu Ze's replying to customer messages in WeChat groups outside working hours, although part of his own work, was not work content arranged by the employer. At the same time, he had not submitted an application and obtained approval from the supervising leader as required by company rules. The chat records and check-in records in the WeChat group provided by Chu Ze could only reflect the behavior of sending messages and communicating at specific times, and could not prove a state of continuous labor.

　　Working hours when using WeChat groups for work are difficult to calculate

　　Before the popularization of WeChat work groups, "going home and leaving the office computer meant you could escape, and rest time was much quieter," Zhao Linlin said. Until she resigned, her company had not established rules and systems for the creation and management of work groups, nor had it clarified group-creation authority or set approval procedures and conditions for creating groups.

　　The reporter randomly interviewed 10 employers; some had provisions on the content of information posted in groups, but none had rules on the creation of WeChat groups, usage time, or duration.

　　Meng Yuping, a legal expert at the Liaoning Provincial Labor and Personnel Dispute Research Association, said that currently China's relevant laws do not regulate this kind of employment management method involving WeChat groups. "The application of digital and information-based office methods allows much work originally completed offline to be realized online, objectively increasing the degree of employers' control over workers, and making the methods of control easier and more concealed," Meng Yuping said. Because replying to work matters via WeChat during rest time does not take place in the workplace and the time limit is difficult to define, it is often hard to recognize as work, giving rise to "invisible overtime."

　　A small number of WeChat group work activities are periodic and fixed, such as online meetings and training. Workers can prove the fact and duration of overtime through meeting notices, training notices, attendance records, and sign-in records. Most, however, are temporary and occasional, and it is difficult to reflect the characteristics of employer management and employment. The duration of overtime using WeChat groups is difficult to quantify objectively, and workers can also engage in other life activities while replying to messages. Therefore, in judicial practice, judges will adjust the amount of overtime pay as appropriate.

　　Workers should be given the right to request leave online

　　In fact, regardless of the form of overtime, a necessary condition for characterization should be that the worker provided a certain amount of substantive labor outside working hours. Wang Lei, director of the Institute of Sociology at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that "invisible overtime" in the form of WeChat work is not unsolvable. First, enterprises should establish relevant rules and regulations, clearly stating that outside working hours, employees should not go online unless necessary and groups should not be created unless necessary. Based on production characteristics, special work needs, or scope of duties, they should negotiate with employees to set fixed online hours. Second, employees should be given the right to request leave online, allowing employees approved for leave not to follow, reply to, or handle messages in work groups.

　　"The standards by which the public identifies work positions, workplaces, and work methods should advance with the times," Wang Lei said. Judicial organs, human resources and social security departments, and others should strengthen research on the issue of WeChat group overtime, clarify the circumstances and standards of WeChat group overtime, educate and guide employers to change their concepts, improve protection mechanisms for employees' rights and interests in WeChat group overtime, and support employees' demands to safeguard their rights and interests in WeChat group overtime.

　　Meng Yuping suggested that courts at all levels and labor arbitration institutions across the country should pay more attention and conduct more research, grasp the patterns and characteristics of online overtime using WeChat groups and other means, and use rights-protection cases to form a standardized and unified recognition mechanism, providing comprehensive protection for workers' rights and interests. At the same time, they should carry out more activities to explain the law through cases, guide employers to view overtime correctly and improve rules and regulations, and guide workers to have a more accurate understanding and awareness of overtime and to be good at expressing rights-protection demands through communication, negotiation, and filing labor arbitration.