By Claire Fu and Marius Zaharia
SINGAPORE/HONG KONG, Sept 29 (Reuters) – With China set for a week-long holiday at the start of October, many workers are taking to social media to complain about the widespread practice of requiring staff to work weekends either side of the break to maintain output.
The online outcry is the latest in a series of social media flare-ups over gruelling schedules, low pay and weak labour protections, with growing calls to punish employers through consumer boycotts or legal action emerging as a new tactic and highlighting deepening labour market strain.
On Weibo, the topic “voices against holiday compensation work cannot be ignored” has garnered 360 million views and generated 120,000 discussions
“I will not travel, order food delivery, or take taxis. I will not contribute any consumer spending during these artificially created holidays,” Suzy Li, 27, said ahead of the National Day holiday. “The reason is that the system takes away weekends that should already belong to me.”
Li, who works in tourism, described the practice as “inhumane” and said policymakers do not want to abolish it because of “economic benefits, productivity gains and development goals.”
Analysts say the discontent is a consequence of China’s increasingly export-driven growth model, which relies on intense competition among businesses to cut costs and prices. This in turn limits wage growth, job opportunities and adds pressure to boost output through overtime.
Workers using their consumer buying power as leverage for better protection of labour rights poses a new challenge to Beijing, which is increasingly under pressure to redistribute more of China’s economic growth to households.
The pressure is not building just online. A Supreme People’s Court report shows that in the first nine months of 2025 – the latest statistics available – courts accepted 648,000 labour disputes against employers, a 37.5% rise year-on-year.
“This is a highly significant shift,” that reflects “deep-seated changes in the Chinese economy,” said Mingwei Liu, director at the Center for Global Work and Employment at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
“For workers, the previously implicit effort-reward contract is breaking down. Today, promotions, wage growth, and employment are all much more uncertain, yet excessive overtime persists. The sacrifices demanded by companies have not decreased, but the rewards they are able to offer are shrinking.”
The human resources ministry and the Cyberspace Administration of China, which regulates online content, did not respond to requests for comment.
WORKER DISCONTENT INCREASINGLY EVIDENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Earlier this month, outrage over an auto-lighting company abruptly firing 107 newly hired graduates prompted its clients, including Volkswagen, to launch investigations. In August, Chinese people shared advice online about filing forced labour complaints to the European Union, denouncing unpaid, excessive overtime, and demanding sanctions against employers.
A mobile app called “Weekend Off Shopping” was launched in July on the WeChat platform, allowing users to check and rate whether businesses gave staff a full two-day weekend, encouraging shoppers to buy from those that did and avoid the others.
It drew 150,000 contributors before authorities suspended the app in September, citing unspecified regulatory violations, state media reported.
Searches for “weekend off shopping” on Chinese social media platforms yielded no results. On Weibo, users see a notice saying results cannot be displayed “in line with relevant laws, regulations and policies.”
Xiao Qiang, founder of the US-based China Digital Times, which monitors China’s internet, said the “intense censorship” suggests authorities saw the app as a new form of “creative resistance” with potential for “social mobilisation.”
SIGNALS THAT THE MESSAGE WAS HEARD
In reporting the suspension, some state media outlets expressed sympathy for workers.
“Clocking out on time and enjoying a weekend off seem to have become a luxury,” Qilu Evening News said.
“Fully protecting workers’ right to rest is a governance loophole that must be addressed now that the initial hype has faded.”
Some companies, including sugar refineries, printing firms and restaurants declared themselves “two-days-off employers” to win customer support.
Liu said the firms’ reactions were a “positive signal.”
“If better labour conditions yield advantages in sales, recruitment, and reputation, companies will no longer have to rely solely on driving down labour costs to compete,” he said.
Analysts expect workers to keep demanding stronger protections in a weakening economy.
“The conflict and tension between a Chinese person’s consumer identity and their identity as a citizen will only become stronger, and more thorny for the Chinese government,” said Yaling Jiang, founder of consultancy ApertureChina.
(Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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