Employees in China often work overtime, more than their counterparts in Japan and the Republic of Korea, an online survey has found.

A survey of 683 companies carried out by China's Human Resource Development website (www.ChinaHRD.net) showed that 80 percent of respondents often work overtime. In 43.1 percent of the firms, employees feel pressured to work overtime.

But more than half did not want to do overtime work.

"We have plenty of employees," a manager of a high-tech company was quoted as saying, adding that those who didn't work overtime were put on his list of people who could be sacked.

China's labor law states that employees should not usually work more than eight hours a day, and average weekly working time should be less than 44 hours. Those who work overtime should be paid extra.

However, the survey found that 10.8 percent of the firms polled had regulations but did not observe them, while 33.5 percent didn't even have a regulation concerning overtime payment.

About 30 percent of the companies paid employees for overtime, but the payment was inadequate, the survey said.

Human resources experts say continuous overtime harms employees' health and reduces efficiency. However, only a quarter of companies show concern for their employees' health, according to the survey.

Source: Xinhua