ABSTRACT
A number of new pieces of labour legislation were adopted in 2007 by the People’s Republic of China. They include the second principal labour law in China: the Labour Contract Law of the PRC (the Labour Contract Law); the fi rst law on labour dispute resolution: the Law on Labour Dispute Mediation and Arbitration of the PRC (the Labour Dispute Law), and the Employment Promotion Law of the PRC (the Employment Promotion Law). Other new legislation includes the Provisions on Employment Services and Employment Management (the Employment Management Provisions) and the Regulations on Employees’ Paid Annual Leaves (the Annual Leaves Regulations). Prior to these legislative developments, there already was a national labour law: the Labour Law of the PRC (the Labour Law), and an administrative regulation on labour dispute resolution: the Regulations of the PRC on Settlement of Labour Disputes in Enterprises (the Labour Dispute Regulations). This is complex legal terrain and, not surprisingly, the drafting and adoption of the Labour Contract Law have generated intense debate. After all, China’s legal and regulatory labour framework is being completely overhauled. When an earlier draft of the law was released for public comment, the authority received over 191,800 responses in one month (Guan 2009: 13). International business organizations such as the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai have raised objections to some provisions in the draft (Cooney et al. 2007: 791; Li 2009: 1108-9; Xu 2009: 454-5). Opposing voices were also raised by multinational corporations (Kahn and Barboza 2007) and domestic capital (Xu 2009: 455). The law was fi nally adopted in June 2007. This chapter examines why there were such extensive legislative activities on labour law in 2007 and why the Labour Contract Law and the Labour Dispute Law were adopted despite the existence of the Labour Law and the Labour Dispute Regulations. Why, for instance, was the Labour Contract Law adopted, notwithstanding strong concerns being expressed by private enterprises, whose investments have been playing a pivotal role in China’s rapid economic growth and development? What precisely are the implica-
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the changes been made? Are there other key issues that warrant attention? This chapter examines these questions through an analysis of the interaction of socio-economic development and changes to the labour system in China in recent years. To do this, a comparative study is used – examining the new laws against the dynamics of the legal regime before the new laws were introduced. The objectives are to reveal the signifi cance of the changes: What are the implications for domestic and foreign investors in the private sector? What are the implications for SOEs? And what do the changes ‘signify’ about China’s civil and commercial law reform movement more generally?
