China Law Blog

The article sees the big issues as whether workers will seek to enforce the new laws and whether courts will enforce them. Based on what I am hearing from our clients, my firm's people in China, and the Chinese lawyers with whom we work, the answer is a tentative yes to both questions.
China's new labor law is very similar to the Labor Standards Acts in Taiwan and Korea, especially with respect to the role of the Labor Administration Department. This type of labor regime envisions an administrative solution to labor disputes whereby the labor department on the local level will enforce the laws with fines and arbitration. If the Taiwanese and Korean examples hold for China, the courts will not be very involved in labor disputes.

Also, those from Anglo-American legal systems will tend to misunderstand fundamental tenets of this new system. For example, employment at will has essentially been eliminated, changes in working conditions have to be mutually agreed on, and there may be no distinction between hourly and salaried workers. Enforcement will start off slow but after a few years will become standard. Family-owned businesses will flout the law with impunity, but large employers and foreign businesses will ignore the law at their peril.

Whether the courts will enforce the new law i

Just a few days ago, a worker once employed by one of my client makes compensation claims because my client did not sign labor contract with her.Our client has no ground defending itself and has to compensate her with additional salaries. There have been more and more such disputes as of the effectiveness of the China Labor Law. But these claims are usually made when the employment is terminated.