CHINESE authorities are coming under pressure to address superexploitation in the e-commerce and delivery sectors after the death of a worker exposed a culture of forced overtime.
A woman employed by Pinduoduo, a “platform” that links producers with buyers that had over 730 million active users last year, collapsed on her way home from work on December 29 and died in hospital.
Shanghai’s Labour Protection Department is now investigating “working hours and employment contracts” at the company while state news agency Xinhua published an account from a former employee who said he had worked 12 to 13-hour days, six days a week for the firm before being sacked for posting a photo of a colleague being taken to hospital in an ambulance.