Hu Wei

Hu Wei

Tiger Smell Official Team

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Production | Tiger Smell ESG Group

Author | Hu Wei

Head Picture | Visual China

This article is the 080th article in the # ESG Progress Observation # series

Keyword for this observation: Labor management

Article Summary

On the May Day this year, Baidu's vice president released a video on labor management in Tiktok, causing controversy, involving overtime, working hours and other issues.

• •    The video content has attracted public attention, involving labor management issues

• • ⏰   Executive comments or suspected violations of labor laws and regulations

• •    High work pressure leads to an increase in employee turnover rate

In 1886, 350000 workers in cities such as Chicago went on strike and marched to protest against excessive working hours. Under international public opinion and social pressure, the US authorities have announced the implementation of an 8-hour work week. To commemorate this historic victory, in July 1889, the Second International established May 1st as International Labor Day.

134 years after the first Labor Day, on May Day this year, Qu Jing, the current Vice President of Baidu and in charge of Baidu's public relations and media team, may not be on vacation.

She released a video on Tiktok in her personal name, but it was not purely private sharing. She appeared as Baidu's vice president and No. 1 public relations officer. Some of her comments related to ESG's first level sub issue - labor management.

After the long holiday, the video attracted attention from all walks of life, and was listed on various hot searches and hot lists such as Weibo and Tiktok. A lawyer told Tiger Sniff ESG that these remarks may offend the law.

Employees do not understand the taste of complete weekends

"Why consider employees' families?" "When it comes to public relations, don't think about weekends." "Our relationship is an employment relationship.". Since May 1, Qu Jing has released at least four videos on her Tiktok, from which all the above comments come.

An economics professor once told me that employment relationships can achieve mutual success and should be a very beautiful social relationship. But Qu Jing's expression in the video gives people a sense of oppression.

This contradicts the author's previous understanding - during a media event organized by Baidu, Qu Jing accompanied her throughout, and her gentle and polite demeanor left a deep impression.

In the video on May 6th, Qu Jing described the past of being so busy that she forgot her son's birthday and didn't know what grade his son was in. She said, "I feel very regretful." Qu Jing is well aware that work with too much intensity can have a regrettable impact on the family life of professionals in the workplace.

Subconsciously, she may feel that since she has been working so hard, it is also appropriate for employees to not take care of their families.

In the video on May 1st, Qu Jing retorted, "Why consider an employee's family?" She even said, "What does it have to do with me if my boyfriend is going to break up? If you care so much about whether your boyfriend supports you or not, you can resign. I'll criticize you in seconds."

Some netizens also understand and like Qu Jing, because she said in a video on May 6th, "I chose to be a professional woman, and I may have regrets in other aspects. So what do you choose? You should be calm about your choice."

But more netizens have taken a different stance on the issue: corporate executives should not demand employees to be clones of themselves, the most basic reason being that they receive uneven salaries, with or without options and equity - that is to say, the level of work and motivation for high-level and grassroots employees are fundamentally different.

Although Li Zhen (pseudonym) has resigned, as a professional in the public relations industry, he still cares about Baidu's public relations and media team. He found that after Qu Jing joined Baidu, the turnover rate of the media team increased.

Usually, companies have relatively fixed staff to connect with a certain media to facilitate information dissemination and disclosure. But a person in charge of a financial media told me that Baidu's liaison can be replaced by three or four people per year. The reporter just became familiar with the contact person, but the other person left shortly after, causing some inconvenience to the media work.

The high turnover rate may be related to high work pressure.

A media source told me that when encountering public opinion, Baidu media staff will cry to media reporters and editors, and if they cannot calm the public opinion, they will lose their jobs.

Excessive and irregular working hours may also lead to employees resigning.

As Qu Jing said in a video on May 5th, "My phone is turned on 24 hours a day, and it arrives as soon as it is transmitted. We start monitoring at 7 am every morning and end at 12 pm. When monitoring and advertising, I have to watch it. If there are any signs that may generate public opinion, I also need to gather groups to handle it."

According to Li Zhen, after resigning from Baidu PR, he heard that a member of the team missed Qu Jing's phone call because they were taking a shower at home at 12 pm and received severe criticism. He also stated that during his time working in public relations at Baidu, he did not have a complete concept of weekends and was hesitant or unable to plan schedules such as watching performances, as he could be asked to take over work tasks at any time.

The author contacted Qu Jing, hoping to verify or discuss various rumors and related topics, but was politely declined.

It must be said that although Qu Jing's work style and management style have distinct personal characteristics, they are all developed under the sunshine of the enterprise architecture.

As a result, the controversy caused by Qu Jing's videos and comments can easily affect Baidu's own ESG image.

Can videos be used as evidence in court?

Qu Jing said, "I haven't violated any labor laws."

However, three lawyers, including Wei Jingfeng, Deputy Director of Beijing Hehong Weiyu Law Firm, Liu Yangyang of Beijing Yunting Law Firm, and Lan Tianbin, Senior Partner of Jiangsu Fade Dongheng Law Firm, all believe that Qu Jing's remarks are an offense to the law.

They told me that the comments on labor management in Qu Jing's four videos roughly include the following provisions of the Labor Law:

Article 36: The state implements a working hour system where the daily working hours of workers do not exceed eight hours and the average weekly working hours do not exceed forty-four hours.

Article 38: Employers shall ensure that workers have at least one day off per week.

Article 41: Employers may extend their working hours due to production and business needs, after consultation with trade unions and workers, generally not exceeding one hour per day; For special reasons that require an extension of working hours, under the condition of ensuring the physical health of workers, the extension of working hours shall not exceed three hours per day, but shall not exceed thirty-six hours per month.

Article 42: In any of the following circumstances, the extension of working hours shall not be subject to the restrictions stipulated in Article 41 of this Law: (1) In the event of natural disasters, accidents, or other reasons that threaten the life, health, and property safety of workers and require urgent handling; （2） Production equipment, transportation routes, and public facilities that malfunction and affect production and public interests must be repaired in a timely manner; （3） Other circumstances stipulated by laws and administrative regulations.

For example, if the following experiences of Baidu employees are true, the company is suspected of violating the law:

1、 When an employee refused to go on a business trip for 50 days, Qu Jing said, "Don't come to me when you're promoted or receiving a salary increase."

Lawyer Liu Yangyang's analysis suggests that based on the information presented in the current Qu Jing video, it is indeed reasonable to require employees to travel continuously for 50 days; But overtime during business trips is also overtime, and even if there are special reasons, it cannot exceed 3 hours per day. Employees must also ensure that they have at least one day off per week, otherwise it may be illegal.

Lawyer Wei Jingfeng pointed out that if the employer, labor union, and workers fail to reach a consensus on overtime matters through negotiation, and the workers do not work overtime, it cannot be a legitimate reason for the company to refuse to give employees a promotion or salary increase.

Liu Yangyang added that in the absence of a consensus reached through tripartite negotiations, if it is to be determined that an employee's refusal to work overtime is unreasonable, reference should be made to the situations involved in Article 42 of the Labor Law.

2、 Qu Jing said, "If you're doing public relations, don't think about taking weekends off... I can't sleep either. My phone is on 24 hours a day, and it can be transmitted anytime... The Spring Festival is the best time for traffic. At this time, you don't do news, you don't do traffic, and you don't spread your products and solutions in a way that the people enjoy. When are you waiting? The colleagues who are working on this project cannot take a vacation during the Spring Festival."

Lawyer Lan Tianbin said that if the employer arranges for workers to extend their working hours, and if the employer arranges for workers to work on rest days but cannot arrange compensatory leave, and arranges for workers to work on statutory leave days, they should pay wages higher than the normal working hours of the workers according to the statutory standards.

But Li Zhen told me that after working overtime, it is only possible to apply for overtime pay in the Baidu internal network system in principle. In practice, employees "feel embarrassed and dare not submit the application, even if it is approved, the leader may not be happy. When I first joined the company, some colleagues advised me not to mention it, and I have never mentioned it before." In a sense, overtime is usually not considered overtime.

Liu Yangyang pointed out, "If workers are forced to work overtime, and are not allowed to take leave on weekends, Spring Festival and other holidays, or if the overtime exceeds the legal maximum overtime hours with the consent of the workers, it is a violation of labor laws."

Wei Jingfeng bluntly said, "Qu Jing's words and actions lack legal awareness and do not respect workers. The statutory rest day is a right granted to workers by law. Qu Jing's behavior is a typical example of using power to suppress people and ignoring the law."

Law is nothing but human relations.

In Wei Jingfeng's view, "In traditional Chinese culture, it is mentioned that 'the Qi family governs the country and pacifies the world', and the Qi family comes first. If workers are constantly forced to work overtime, it may lead to family breakdown, disharmony in parent-child relationships, and even affect the growth of their children."

Liu Yangyang believes that "morally speaking, in order to build a harmonious labor relationship, workers and employers should understand each other, negotiate together, and seek more reasonable solutions. For example, for long business trips, workers can be arranged to go home for a few days during the period and relevant expenses can be reimbursed."

On May 7, all the videos in Qu Jing Tiktok were cleared.

Wei Jingfeng said, "If Qu Jing's remarks are true, they undoubtedly violate legal provisions. If a dispute arises, these remarks in her video can even be submitted as evidence, and the court or arbitration institution may make a favorable determination for the worker after trial."

So far, Baidu officials or Qu Jing himself have not made any public response to the controversy caused by this series of videos.

很多年后，百度副总裁还会记得这个五一节

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