As the economy has developed and internet technologies have progressed, the way workers work has become more and more flexible, with working from home and working online becoming more and more common, shining an increasingly bright light on the issue of “invisible overtime” where such social media software as WeChat is used to handle work after working hours. A labour dispute case involving overtime pay recently concluded by the Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court should be closely studied by employers.
In May 2021, Zhang joined a group acquisition company in Wuhan and the parties executed a two-year employment contract that specified a monthly wage of RMB16,000 [USD2,252] and an eight-hour workday. After joining the company, Zhang often used WeChat to deal with work matters after working hours, sometimes just replying to simple work questions but at other times holding online work meetings, sometimes for just a few minutes but at other times lasting several hours.
In November 2021, Zhang terminated his employment relationship with the company and instituted arbitration proceedings, demanding that the company pay him more than RMB80,000 in overtime pay.
The two most salient difficulties in determining the overtime involved in using WeChat and other such social media software to handle work after working hours are:
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