Our second collection of comments from ordinary people on China’s proposed Draft Labor Law—culled from the web-site of the People’s Daily—focuses on the problem of labor law enforcement in China. See our previous post for the first collection and additional background information.
The People’s Daily web-site was put up last spring and drew over 100 pages of comments on the new law.
While the problem of actually getting labor laws enforced is faced by workers in many places, including the US, these entries zero in on the specific problems that Chinese workers face when they seek labor law enforcement. Many of the posts also reflect the hope that improvements in the law can also be the basis for improvements in enforcement.
Once again, we want to thank Julia Chuang and her colleagues for making these comments available to non-Chinese speaking people.
We recommend reading our report, Behind the Great Wall for a better understanding of the proposed draft law and the context of the comments.
Re: Draft Law I hope that this law isn’t an empty piece of paper, and that implementation will be strengthened so that those who violate contracts will be strictly punished. It should not just serve to “scratch the itch.”
Re: Draft Law I think that in this new labor contract law, we should add a clause to restrict those managers in employing work units who do not implement legal court decisions, and also do not heed the stipulations of labor contracts. At present, I have faced these sorts of problems: the manager promises me that they have won the lawsuit, but the work unit has not implemented legal court decisions, and has not heeded the stipulations of my work contract. All attempts to force them to implement these laws are useless, and workers simply have absolutely no leverage with their employing work units.
Re: Draft Law How can we punish enterprises that do not sign contracts with their workers? A contract can guarantee the legal rights and interests of labor and capital. But the biggest shortcoming of this law is that there is no way to punish the bosses if they do not sign a contract! As everyone knows, the reason that so many sweatshops dare to not pay back wages and dare to pay less than the minimum wage in ripping of the workers is because they haven’t signed a contract!
Re: Draft Law I’m originally from Shanxi province, but have worked in Dongguan for seven years. I haven’t seen even a couple factories that obey the labor law; all of them are “black.” They make us work 12 hours a day, and we don’t get extra money for overtime…. There’s a gap between what’s in the contract and what actually happens, so the labor law should give the labor bureau methods for strictly punishing those that violate the law.
Re: Draft Law The key is to increase the strength of punishment against employers!!! Increase the cost of violating the law!!!
Re: Draft Law Protecting the legal rights and interests of workers is the most basic responsibility of the government. I hope that this new law is not just well structured, but that it is also well implemented.
Re: Draft Law I think that Mr. Ma’s view is correct [from an earlier post]. I’m a low level employee at the Ministry of Labor, and we frequently encounter this sort of situation in our day to day work. The Ministry of Labor currently has no coercive administrative measures, so sometimes when there is illegal behavior we are unable to handle the situation and protect the legal rights an interests of workers. I can only remind workers that I think the government should increase the Ministry of Labor’s powers of enforcement, and give us some necessary administrative methods in order to better serve workers and protect their legal rights and interests! I’ve seen that recently the Shenzhen City Department of Labor has detained and sentenced some people from enterprises that have serious problems with not paying back wages. I personally think that this type of approach is necessary. We are a society subject to the rule of law, and if you break the law you must pay the price. However, in order to do this many different government departments need to coordinate. It can be done in Shenzhen, but I’m afraid it will be hard to do here in the interior of the country. I hope that the government gives the Ministry of Labor stronger powers of enforcement in order to better protect the rights and interests of workers!
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