China seeks opinions on rules to protect workers sent overseas
August 03rd, 2010 | XinhuaThe Chinese government has begun to solicit public opinion on a set of draft regulations on the management of foreign labor service cooperation agreements, which aim to protect workers sent overseas.
“Problems exist in foreign labor cooperation, such as nonstandard markets and illegal operations by some companies. In some cases, workers’ legal rights were not properly protected, which occasionally led to overseas labor conflicts and even mass incidents,” said a statement released Tuesday by the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council.
The draft rules have specified market admittance and responsibilities of foreign labor cooperation companies, as well as what the government’s role should be in foreign labor service cooperation agreements.
China’s foreign labor service cooperation is mainly conducted in two ways: domestic companies recruit and train workers in accordance with the requirements of foreign employers and send them overseas to offer labor services; or domestic contractors send workers overseas for contracted foreign projects.
While the latter condition is covered in the current Administrative Regulations on Contracting Foreign Projects, the new rules will mainly focus on laborers sent by domestic companies to foreign employers.
The rules noted that individual Chinese citizens who worked overseas are not covered by the regulations.
The solicitation will remain open until Aug. 23, and opinions can be sent via letters or by logging onto chinalaw.gov.cn.