Employees fined for walking fewer than 180,000 steps

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An unnamed employee at a real estate company in southern China's Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, was fined 100 yuan (about 14 U.S. dollars) last month because she didn't meet the company's minimum requirement of walking 180,000 steps a month, local newspaper Information Times reports this week.

The company, which collected the total number of steps through the multi-function app WeChat, made a controversial rule that docks employee pay if they walk fewer than 180,000 steps each month – average 6,000 steps a day. Members who are under the target are fined 0.01 yuan for each step.

Mobile app tracks fitness and connects to a smart watch. /VCG Photo

“I understand that the company wants to encourage us to keep fit by walking. But sedentary work for long hours from morning to night makes it difficult to achieve [the goal],” an employee with the nickname “Little C” was quoted as saying.

“Although 6,000 [steps] a day does not seem like a lot, I usually only walk about 2,500 steps on a normal workday. I don't even have enough time to sleep to complete the walking assignment, which has been a huge burden for me,” she added.

Instruction photos for “smart wigglers” on e-commerce platform Taobao /Photo via Taobao

While “Little C” felt it was a nearly impossible task, her colleagues found a “smart wiggler” to muddle through. They rigged the fitness system by attaching their phones to an automatic shaking device that can generate step data.

The wiggler can be purchased on China's e-commerce platform Taobao with a price between 20 and 60 yuan. “Little C” said she also cheated by using the small gadget, although only at home, to avoid grabbing the attention of her bosses.

An outdoor walking event held in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, October 27, 2018. /VCG Photo

However, this company is not alone in China in bringing the number of steps walked in line with office performance. Last year, a biotech company in eastern China's Hangzhou City reportedly demanded that employees walk 7,000 steps per day and another Chongqing-based company in southwest China was criticized for urging staff to walk 10,000 steps a day.

Users on China's social media have mixed reactions toward the unusual workplace rule, with some favoring the company's rule as a good initiative to motivate workouts and others objecting to it because it's one's freedom to decide if they want to walk or not, and firms don't have the right to impose a penalty.

“Why not award bonuses to those who meet the requirement,” commented a user on China's Twitter-like platform Weibo.

Liu Fengmao, a lawyer at the Guangdong FaSheng Law Firm, said the company has no legal grounds to use walking steps as a measure of performance, not to mention resulting in a fine. He added that if employees get injured when trying to reach their target while they're off work, it would be an injury suffered on the job from a legal perspective.

(Top image designed by CGTN's Qu Bo)