An All-China Federation of Trade Unions member and researcher's observation on overtime work during a group discussion at the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee on Wednesday has gone viral on social networking sites.

"Overtime, or extra working hours, is against a healthy development principle, and goes against the national call of raising people's living standards. Hoping that this problem can be addressed," said Lyu Guoquang.

Labor laws say that the working time of laborers should be eight hours a day and 44 hours a week. Where needed, the duration can be increased, but not by more than three hours a day or 36 hours a month, so that workers' health and livelihoods are not affected.

However, some companies, including government agencies, have failed to adhere to the prescribed working and resting hours. Of course, one cannot totally do away with overtime, it is sometimes necessary; during the novel coronavirus outbreak, for instance, many enterprises asked their employees to work extra hours every day to produce enough face masks to meet the hight demand.

However, there is no reason why some entrepreneurs advocate a"996" working schedule where one works from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm every day, six days a week. Others require their employees to be on their toes 24 hours a day, should the company alert them over WeChat about some work. That leaves them with hardly any time for themselves. Especially, some software companies are redefining work culture and there is little employees can do to undo that.

It is time, a law enforcers stepped in and expanded labor monitoring operations, while the judiciary increased the amount of fine imposed on enterprises for illegally asking their staff members to work extra hours. This way fewer enterprises would dare violate the law.

A hardworking spirit is important, but extra hours is not quite the same thing.