China's state council issued an implementation regulation this Thursday to clear up some misunderstandings about the new labor contract law. The law which was put into effect on January 1st of this year allowed for workers who had been working for a company for 10 years or more to sign contracts with no set time limits. This new law is thought to be a landmark step in protecting workers rights. However many companies complained that it would raise there operational cost due to the overemphasized protection of workers. The Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council released this statement: "By issuing the regulation, we hope to make it clear that labor contracts with no fixed termination dates did not amount to lifetime contracts". The regulation listed 14 terms under which an employer could fire an employee with a labor contract. This conditions include incompetence to live up to job requirements, and serious violations of regulations. There were also 13 conditions under which the employee could decide to terminate their contract. These include forced labor and delayed pay. Compensation is also required if a employees terminate their contract and it is doubled if the employer decides to terminate them.
The success of this law obviously relies on the enforcement. If the Chinese government actually holds companies to these regulations then it will be a giant step for workers rights in China. They claim that they are going to have "law enforcement inspections" but the owners could make the workers lie, just as they do now. It's great that the government is settling the misunderstandings about the law. The companies worries about the high cost of operation probably wouldn't make the companies go under, the owners were just worried that they wouldn't be able to drive a Rolls Royce anymore and would have to settle for a Mercedes or something.
2 comments:
I guess this may be a step in the right direction. After seeing that video today I was completely aghast. I felt tired just watching it. It is like those workers are robbed of their humanity. What does your life mean if you are worked like a machine?
On paper this labor law contract seems to be a much better condition than what workers have now. However, I am forced to believe that the "regular law inspection" won't be so regular and as you said the employees may be forced to lie. I don't think that the employees rights will change, we will just be shown the version of labor that the companies want the world to see.
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