China's Human Resources

II. Legal System for Human Resources Development

Adhering to the strategy based on the rule of law, China actively promotes democratic and scientific legislation to provide legal security for the fair and equal rights of individual development for everyone, and the scientific development of human resources. Through years of development, China has established a human resources development legal system with the Constitution as the essential basis, the Labor Law and the Civil Servant Law as the foundation, the Labor Contract Law, the Employment Promotion Law, and the Law on Mediation and Arbi-tration of Labor Disputes as the main contents, and other separate laws and administrative regulations as major components.

Legal system for promoting employment

To achieve the goal of expanding and stabilizing employment, China promulgated the Labor Law of the People's Republic of China in 1994, which expressly states that the state strives to create job op-portunities and expand employment through promoting economic and social development. The Employment Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China adopted in 2007 has laid down the principle of "in-dependent job-seeking by workers, employment based on market forces and the promotion of employment by the government," requir-ing the building of a government responsibility system for promoting employment, the implementing of industry, investment, finance and taxation policies favorable for boosting employment, making an over-all plan for balanced employment between urban and rural areas, in various regions and among different social groups. According to this Employment Promotion Law the state will establish an unemployment precaution system, improve the public employment service, vocational training and employment aid systems. The enforcement of these laws has greatly facilitated the interaction between economic development and employment promotion.

The state ensures that workers in China enjoy the rights of equal employment and independent job-seeking in accordance with the law. Since 1988 China has promulgated the Law of the People's Republic of China for the Protection of Disabled Persons, Law of the People's Republic of China for the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests, Law of the People's Republic of China for the Protection of Minors, Regulations Concerning the Labor Protection of Female Staff and Workers, Provisions Concerning the Prohibition of the Use of Child Labor, Regulations on the Employment of the Disabled, and other laws and administrative regulations. The Employment Promotion Law has a special chapter on equal employment, which stipulates that no em-ployees shall be discriminated against on the grounds of ethnicity, race, gender and religion, and specially provides that rural employees work-ing in cities should enjoy the same labor rights as urban employees.

The state also promotes vocational education and training through legislation. Since 1995 China has promulgated the Education Law of the People's Republic of China, Vocational Education Law of the Peo-ple's Republic of China, Law of the People's Republic of China on Promotion of Privately-run Schools and similar laws, and has estab-lished a vocational education and training mechanism on the principle of "the market guiding training, and training promoting employment." Based on vocational education institutions and training organizations at various levels, China has improved multi-form and multi-level vo-cational education, and formed a vocational education and training system connecting education at various levels, and linking vocational education with general education.

Proactive efforts have been made by the state to standardize the management of professional and technical staff. Since 1993 China has promulgated the Teachers Law of the People's Republic of China, Law of the People's Republic of China on Medical Practitioners, Law of the People's Republic of China on Lawyers, Law of the People's Republic of China on Certified Public Accountants, Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Certified Public Architects, and other related laws and regulations. These laws and regulations stipulate the qualifi-cations and certificate standards of professional and technical staff, and their right to receive continuing education as well as their professional ethics, thereby standardizing the employment requirements for profes-sional and technical staff and improving the quality of professional services.

Legal system for public human resources management

In 1993 China promulgated the Interim Regulations on Civil Ser-vants, which launched the civil service system. The Civil Servants Law of the People's Republic of China went into effect in 2006, since when a series of related regulations have been issued concerning the employ-ment and training, assessment and award, appointment and removal, promotion, demotion and transfer, punishment and appeal, resignation and dismissal of civil servants, penalties for violating civil service en-trance examination rules, and appointment and ranking of new recruits. Over 1,000 regulations have been issued, covering the major compo-nents of public human resources management, including the wages and welfare of employees in government departments and public institu-tions, human resources management in public institutions, personnel mobility management and macro-control of human resources.

Legal system for human resources rights protection

In the mid-1980s China started the trial implementation of the la-bor contract system, which was officially established through the promulgation of the Labor Law of the People's Republic of China in the 1990s. The Labor Contract Law of the People's Republic of China, promulgated in 2007, and the later Regulations on the Implementa-tion of the Labor Contract Law of the People's Republic of China, have further improved the labor contract system, specified the rights and obligations of employers and employees, the rules for signing, implementing, revising, canceling or terminating labor contracts and corresponding liabilities, and, taking into account the trend toward diversified forms of employment, made provisions about how to regulate labor dispatch services and part-time employment, and other aspects.

Collective consultation, together with a collective contract system, is being actively implemented in China. The Labor Law of the Peo-ple's Republic of China and the Labor Contract Law of the People's Republic of China both prescribe a collective contract system, encour-aging enterprises to adopt collective consultation and to sign collective contracts. The framework of the collective contract system with collec-tive enterprise consultation as the main body, and with regional and trade collective consultation as the supplement, has been gradually formed. In recent years, the coverage of the collective contract system has been continuously enlarged with increasing effectiveness. A col-lective labor relations coordination system characterized by equal consultation between trade union or employee representatives and en-terprise or enterprise organization representatives has been basically established. For the fair and timely settlement of labor disputes, the Law of the People's Republic of China on Mediation and Arbitration of Labor Disputes was adopted in 2007, stipulating the scope, procedures, or-ganizations, personnel and mechanism for labor dispute mediation and arbitration. In addition, a tripartite labor relations coordination mecha-nism has been established, comprising government departments, trade unions and enterprises, so as to better mediate and arbitrate labor disputes and give better legal redress for the timely and appropriate settlement of labor disputes and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the relevant parties. The Regulations on Labor Security Supervision have been issued and put into effect, specifying the func-tions, implementation and legal liabilities of labor security supervision, thereby providing significant legal support for safeguarding the legiti-mate rights and interests of employees.