Maroc - EURASIAREVIEW.COM - A la une - 06/Feb 23:40

China: Human Dignity In The Trash Bin – OpEd

The Chinese company, Lixun Diasheng, has faced criticism after illegally photographing employees and publishing the photos of them while using the toilet. The controversial practice of Lixun Diasheng, a company based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, has sparked widespread condemnation online. The company's initial response to the blatant violation of both labor and human rights of its employees is that it illegally photographed them during their work breaks, intending to admonish them not to spend excessively long periods in the bathroom at the expense of their work. Of course, this response did not satisfy anyone. China is known to always lean towards productivity over the respect of labor rights. We must not forget that this is the country that implemented the inhumane work schedule of 9,9,6, reminding its employees who slept in sleep capsules to endure the notorious ominous slogan of the labor battalions: "Work sets you free." Let's get to the incident itself. According to reports from January 20, the employees went to the bathroom during their break where they used their phones to scroll through social media and also smoked, which was prohibited within the company's office. Because, it seems, they ignored knocks from their supervisors on the door to shorten their break, the supervisors at the company decided to punish them in collaboration with the management. Staff members used a ladder to capture images of naked employees in the bathroom from above. However, the company later removed the images after a few hours, admitting that "they didn't look good." The company justified the practice, claiming that it was necessary to limit "non-productive" activities such as smoking and excessive gaming in the restroom. It also imposed a smoking ban in the facility premises as part of the broader policy. The revelation, which came to light after the incident was published by the South China Morning Post, has sparked an outcry from internet users and legal experts alike. Many condemned the company's actions as a serious violation of privacy and human dignity. The public's reaction was extremely negative, with many questioning the company's ethical and legal conscience. "The first thing the company thought was that the photos didn't look good, instead of thinking that they were illegal evidence showing that the company didn't have proper legal training," noted an online observer. Another critic asked, "Are they employees or slaves?" Zhu Xue, a lawyer from the law firm Celue, told the Chinese media outlet Jimu News that the company had violated its employees' privacy. "Companies should not record and manage employees' laziness or misconduct using illegal methods," Zhu said. This incident is not the first of its kind. In recent years, other Chinese companies have faced scrutiny for invasive monitoring practices. For example, GOME was criticized for monitoring employees' internet usage and punishing them for activities such as playing games or listening to music during work hours, conditions that are exactly the opposite of Scandinavian and American companies that have realized that music increases employee productivity and therefore play music in offices during working hours. Additionally, Sangfor Technologies faced backlash after promoting a system that monitored employees' intentions to resign by tracking their job search activities. The Lixun Diansheng incident raises significant questions about the balance between workplace discipline and employee privacy protection in China. Privacy advocates warn that companies must be careful in their approach to employee monitoring, ensuring that any surveillance is conducted with consent and does not violate data protection laws. Legal experts have emphasized that monitoring should only be used in specific, lawful circumstances, and employees' personal lives should not be subjected to unwarranted scrutiny. But if we slightly broaden our perspective on this event, we inevitably open Pandora's box regarding the respect for human and labor rights in the 21st century. The first thing that struck my personal awareness bell on this issue was the company's attempt to downplay the significance of the incident by presenting it as a failed, exaggerated joke. The second thing I think about is that while globally capitalism is the negatively charged regime with the instrumentalization of humans as a productive object that has no value beyond the value of the labor hour they provide, here we are faced with a communist regime that shows blatant indifference to the respect of the worker and the human being. Do they ultimately kill horses when they grow old in China and not in America? This question leads to the immediate conclusion that China is a country that generally does not give due importance to the respect of human rights, not only for its citizens (on an individual level, whether collective labor) but also for the minorities living within it, with Tibetans and Uyghurs being the most afflicted minority groups. The international community has strongly criticized China regarding the Uyghur issue, following reports of the notorious "Uyghur re-education camps." China refers to them as a kind of boarding schools, where Uyghurs learn Chinese, according to its own perspective "under good conditions." However, testimonies speak of persecutions, torture, and surveillance. Ιt is clear that we must fortify ourselves against the paradox of a global struggle for the protection of personal data and citizens' privacy on one hand, and on the other hand, accepting incidents like the blatant violation of privacy in the workplace. Of course, woke culture has contributed, whether we want to admit it or not, to the individual and collective sacrifice of personal data protection at the altar of documenting our lives in the form of the overexposure of our lives, even with nude images on social media. While women are currently making a tremendous effort to strengthen their role globally in society and the workplace and seem to be continuously succeeding, the naked Bianca Sensori, accompanied by Kanye West, is being removed from the Grammy Awards as her stance promotes the objectification of the naked female body. If we do not react, incidents like the one that happened in China will increasingly multiply, and as John Windman says in his book Chrysalis, "The essential quality of life is life; the essential quality of life is change; change is evolution; and we are part of it."