Chinese employers could find themselves in court from next year
if they discriminate against job seekers on the grounds of sex,
age, religion, race or physical disability. Job applicants will be
entitled to sue employers for discrimination from Jan. 1 under the
new national Employment Promotion Law.
Adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People's
Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, on Thursday, the law is
intended promote employment and prohibit job discrimination.
The law was drawn up to help create opportunities for more than
13 million new job seekers entering the market each year,
particularly for laid-off workers, university graduates,
ex-servicemen and migrant workers in urban areas.
With nine chapters and 69 articles, the law requires governments
to coordinate employment policies in urban and rural areas to
expand employment and provide equal opportunities.
It bans discrimination against job seekers based on their
ethnicity, race, gender, religious belief, age, or physical
disability.
The law says governments at all levels must create a climate for
fair employment and root out discrimination against job
seekers.
Job seekers can sue employers who practice discrimination, the
law says.
It requires governments above county level to make expansion of
employment a key task and implement policies to support the
task.
The state will increase opportunities through various means,
including the development of labor-intensive and service
industries, medium-sized and small companies, the non-public sector
and international trade.
The state will implement financial policies favorable to
employment promotion and expand channels of fund-raising for small
and medium-sized companies.
The law says the state will encourage financial institutions to
improve services and enhance credit support for small and
medium-sized companies.
The state will support those who start their own businesses by
providing small loans.
The law stipulates that government-run employment service
agencies must provide free services to the labor force and are
prohibited from commercial operations.
The law says staff members of the government's labor and social
security departments who are found to have committed abuse of
power, dereliction of duty or cheating will be punished according
to the law.
Intermediary employment agencies not approved and registered by
the labor and social security authorities and industrial and
commercial authorities will be closed down and fined 10,000 yuan
(US$1,315) to 50,000 yuan, according to the law.
The law has a special chapter on boosting professional training
for the labor force to meet market demand, requiring governments
above the county level to support vocational schools, other
professional training organizations and employers in providing
pre-employment training, on-the-job training and reemployment
training.
Enterprises must have required funding for education of
employees and open vocational training courses for employees.
Employers who failed to set up employment education funds or
misuse them will be ordered to correct their wrongdoings and be
punished according to law.
By the end of 2005, around 760 million Chinese were in the work
force and the unemployment rate was under 4.3 percent. During the
10th Five-Year Development Plan period (2000-2005), 42 million
people in urban areas and 40 million migrant workers found
jobs.
According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the
number of registered urban unemployed reached 8.38 million, a rate
of 4.1 percent, by the end of June, down 0.1 percentage point from
June last year.
The law was submitted on Friday to the 29th session of the
Standing Committee of the NPC for a third reading, after the first
review in February and the second in June 2007.
(Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2007)