"What's significant about the passage of the Labor Contract Law is not that it addresses the Shanxi kiln problem, but that the NPC wanted to create the impression that it would. In other words, the NPC used the Labor Contract Law as an opportunity to appear responsive to public outrage and to pander to public opinion. For a legislative body that isn't popularly elected, it's behaving an awful lot like the U.S. Congress. "

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTT?????????

Maya are you out of your mind?

How the hell is the NPC like the U.S. Congress. Once something is passed by Congress and ratified by the president and the Judical branch than it is law...which America follows.

The NPC is just pushing paper and whatever its contents it won't be followed...there is a huge difference. You can never compare the two...The U.S. system is much closer to being fair.

FRITZ:

It think the part "it's behaving an awful lot like [...]" refers to "the NPC used the Labor Contract Law as an opportunity to appear responsive to public outrage and to pander to public opinion".

In other words, the NPC not being an elected body, they basically should have no reason to pander to public opinion, espcially in a biased way like that; yet they did.

"...a law requiring written contracts is beside the point."

is it? or would violation of the writing requirement subject the employer to additional civil liability for each employee not under written contract?

it's hard to say without actually seeing the law itself. if "danwei" has access to the text of the labor contract law, i humbly suggest (read "strongly encourage") that you append it to the links above for the benefit of future readers. if "danwei" does *not* have access to the text of the law ... then what can i say?

@Fritz,

you're awfully naive if you think our system works just like that. American politicians are as quick to make laws as knee-jerk reactions to tragedies for political gain as any other politicians around the world. And, as is becoming increasingly apparent, The Bush/Cheneybot seem more than happy to flout the law whenever it suits their purposes, which is like just about all the time now. So I agree with Maya's assessment, which makes sense because while there's no political party threatening the CCP's rule, outright anarchy in rural areas certainly is. The US system is closer to fairness, but not by as much as we are led to think.

"In other words, the NPC used the Labor Contract Law as an opportunity to appear responsive to public outrage and to pander to public opinion."

Is this a new development? I'm genuinely asking, I don't know. If unusual, surely it's a positive development in many ways? Even if many people perceive the flaw you've noticed, namely that the Law and the scandal are less related than the NPC and media want to make out, there's still a certain feeling of aptness and on-the-ballness about the timing. You know, a bit of the old "heavenly mandate" vibe - but also an encouragement to the people to expect favourable legislative responses to future issues as they emerge.

b.:

Here is an unofficial English translation of the law on the Shanghai American Chamber of Commerce website.

The translation is by Baker & McKenzie.

The Chinese government does not always make draft legislation available to the public; it is unclear from where Baker & McKenzie obtained the original Chinese document.

The second version of the law in Chinese (from December 2006) is available on the official NPC website, here.

thanks for the update, jeremy.

to answer my own question posed above, the labor contract law *does*, as expected, impose civil penalties on employers who fail to establish written contracts for their employees within one month of the commencement of the employment term (ch. 7, art. 82).

this provision, of course, is no magic remedy for labor abuse; but neither is it "beside the point," as maya stated above. rather, by imposing an additional and clearly delimited financial cost for uncontracted employment, the provision cited hits employers where it hurts the most--their pocketbooks (or black, pig-leather man-purses, in the case of china)--and thereby shifts slightly, but no doubt significantly, the economic incentives of uncontracted labor abuse.

legal provisions are seldom magic, even in countries characterized by the rule of law. to expect otherwise in a developing society such as china's is disingenuous, even for the china-apologist. ;-)

i love the legal posts, danwei. keep up the good work!

link

This is another unofficial translation of the final Labor Contract Law created by an international team of legal scholars, lawyers and language specialists, not management consultants.