Chinese win new protections on the job Foreign investors assured they won't be hurt by revisions 3 Edition

• Published in: International herald tribune
• Main Author: Joseph Kahn and David Barboza
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Paris New York Times Company 30.06.2007
• Edition: International edition
• Subjects: BEIJING
• ISSN: 0294-8052

China's legislature passed a sweeping new labor law Friday that strengthens protections for workers across its booming economy, rejecting pleas from foreign investors who argued that the measure would reduce China's appeal as a low-wage, business-friendly investment destination. The new labor contract law, enacted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, requires employers to provide written contracts to their workers, restricts the use of temporary laborers, and makes it harder to lay off employees. The law, which will take effect in 2008, also enhances the role of the Communist Party's monopoly union and allows collective bargaining for wages and benefits. It softens some provisions that foreign companies said would hurt China's competitiveness, but retained others that U.S.-based multinational companies had lobbied vigorously to exclude. "This is the biggest change in Chinese labor law in the reform and opening period," said Qiu Jie, a labor law expert at People's University in Beijing. "It gives legal protection to the vast majority of workers who had no way to protect their rights under the old system."