Why Does the HEYTEA Overtime Case Matter to the Coffee Industry?

A former HEYTEA franchise employee posted clock-in records and chat screenshots showing long hours of overtime without overtime pay, a 700 yuan deduction for lateness, and a base salary that fell from a promised 7,000 yuan to 4,000 yuan. The post spread quickly and drew wide discussion among netizens.

The store involved is a franchise, and the employee said managers monitored surveillance and issued fines for small mistakes. Franchise outlets often control pay and scheduling themselves, which makes worker rights harder to protect and exposes the gap with directly operated stores. The case is a reference point for coffee industry operators weighing staffing and labor rules before they decide how much does it cost to open a coffee shop.

Recently, a former employee of a HEYTEA franchise store publicly shared on social media the unreasonable employment treatment they experienced, quickly sparking heated discussion among netizens. The employee posted clock-in records and chat screenshots, pointing out that they had long worked overtime without ever receiving overtime pay, yet were deducted 700 yuan for being late, and the base salary promise also did not match reality. More notably, the autonomy of franchise stores in compensation management makes it difficult to protect employee rights, bringing the treatment gap between directly operated stores and franchise stores to the surface. This article summarizes the course of events and views from various parties for reference by coffee industry practitioners.

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Recently, a HEYTEA employee posted on social media about their experience of unpaid overtime, and the post quickly attracted a large number of netizens to watch and discuss.

This employee posted attendance clock-in records from last December. Of more than a dozen records, over half showed daily working hours of more than 10 hours, making overtime the norm. However, according to chat records released by the person involved, when settling the previous month's wages, the store manager did not include overtime pay, but instead deducted 700 yuan on the grounds of lateness. This treatment left the poster quite dissatisfied, and she directly asked: "HEYTEA, I want to ask, is it true that overtime beyond the work scope has no overtime pay?"

(Image screenshot from the person's Xiaohongshu account)

In addition to the overtime pay dispute, the employee also mentioned that the salary plan initially given by the store manager stated a "base salary of 7,000," but when she actually asked about the base salary amount, the other party changed the answer to 4,000 yuan. In addition, being late or leaving early resulted in deductions, while overtime received no compensation at all.

(Image screenshot from the person's Xiaohongshu account)

It is understood that the store where the employee worked is a franchise store, and she had worked there since the store opened. She revealed that the store manager often checked the store surveillance, and once any minor mistake by an employee was found, fines and deductions followed, causing store employees to remain under high pressure for a long time. Many chose to leave after working for a while because they could not bear it.

As an veteran employee who witnessed the constant turnover of newcomers, she never expected that after nearly a year of work, she still could not receive the pay she deserved. She admitted to being physically and mentally exhausted and was already planning to resign.

(Image screenshot from the person's Xiaohongshu account)

After the post was published, the chat records between the person involved and the store manager led onlookers to speak up for her: "So clocking in is just for show," "More than ten hours a day for this little money, let her do it herself," "Oh my god, just looking at it is exhausting," "The longest day was 14 hours, too scary."

Many netizens offered advice in the comments section for the poster, suggesting that before resigning she protect her rights through formal channels such as official complaints and labor arbitration, and recover the overtime pay she deserved.

Some HEYTEA employees also shared their own experiences, saying that the official working hours are 8 hours, and in directly operated stores, employees receive overtime pay as long as they exceed the prescribed hours. As for fines for being late, there may be slight differences depending on store regulations in different places, but it is unlikely that lateness fines for one month would reach as high as 700 yuan.

Employees at directly operated stores revealed that under normal circumstances, the wages for positions such as HEYTEA store manager and shift manager are generally above 9,000. Although the person involved was a store manager, her compensation was lower than what they understood, and they said bluntly that the store manager was too harsh in calculating wages.

But some workers also said helplessly that although HEYTEA has relevant regulations on employee treatment, the compensation of franchise store employees is entirely the responsibility of the franchisee, and the official side does not intervene much.

Therefore, if one meets a kind boss, compensation and treatment are basically not much different from those of directly operated store employees. But if one meets a manager who values store profits, then unreasonable situations such as unpaid overtime may occur: "The schedule is an 8-hour shift, and everything extra is all compulsory unpaid overtime," "I worked 17 hours when a HEYTEA franchise store opened and ended up with a herniated disc from exhaustion."

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.