Chinese online video and gaming company Bilibili listed at Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Monday. Photo: CFP

Bilibili, one of China's leading video-sharing platforms, is facing growing criticism over the death of an employee even after the company denied claims that excessive work has caused the death, with some family members of the employee criticizing the firm's handling of the incident.

On Monday night, a social media user, who claimed to be the cousin of the employee, posted on Sina Weibo, saying that the deceased had been buried on Sunday and no one from the company had come to offer condolences. The user also claimed that the company has not offered any sincere apology, let alone consultations. 

In a statement earlier on Monday, Bilibili said that the recent sudden death of one of its employees was not caused by excess overtime work as some reports claimed.

In the statement, Bilibili said that the employee, who joined the company in May 2020, worked from 9:30 am to 18:30 pm every day during the Spring Festival, which are "regular working hours." During the week before his death on Feburary 4, he did not work overtime.

Bilibili said that the company has set up a special group working with police to probe the case.

Bilibili's statement came after a social media user under the name "wangluobei" claimed on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo that the artificial intelligent (AI) audit team leader from Bilibili died on February 4 due to overtime work during the Spring Festival. 

After reports of the employee's passing, the company inactivated the employee's account on its corporate WeChat platform, according to some media reports. 

The notice quickly topped the trending on Sina Weibo Monday afternoon, with many netizens expressing anger with the company, saying that internet-based businesses should abolish overtime work.

Some programmers said that Bilibili's AI group was responsible for overseeing content released on the platform, and the employees in that team often work late, and they are poorly paid by the company.

 According to recruitment advertisement posted on major job sites, employees in Bilibili's audit team work 12 hours and should "be able to accept night shift arrangements."

The incident has garnered widespread attention on social media in China, as it renewed the public's long-running criticism of excessive overtime work culture at some internet companies, the notorious "996" work culture. Many tech giants have also vowed to improve work conditions amid lingering criticism. 

Chinese authorities have also criticized the excessive overtime work culture. In August 2021, the Supreme People's Court and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security published an article, criticizing labor violations and unreasonable overtime.

Global Times