Ministry Drafts Implementing Regulations for Employment Contract Law - International Law Office

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has been informally soliciting comments as part of the process of drafting implementing regulations for the Employment Contract Law (for further details please see "Effect and Implications of New Employment Contract Law"). The implementing regulations are expected to be completed later in Autumn 2007 and come into effect with the new law on January 1 2008.

Local jurisdictions are planning to amend their own labour contract regulations, although drafts are unlikely to be completed until the ministry has issued its national implementing regulations. Officials at the Shanghai Labour Bureau, which is considering revisions to the Shanghai Labour Contract Regulations, have indicated that the amended local regulations may not be released until early 2008. Labour bureau officials in Beijing and in Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces have also indicated that they are delaying the amendment of local regulations until national regulations are issued.

In a related development, Jiangsu province issued regulations effective on January 1 2008 that provide guidelines on employee representative congresses, including:

• their functions, formation and terms of office;

• the frequency of their meetings; and

• their means of passing resolutions.

The law refers to the role of the employee representative congress in an employer's adoption of company rules.

Shanghai approved collective contract regulations this summer. The Shanghai branch of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions issued regulations governing the establishment of employee representative congresses in private enterprises; Shangdong province has recently approved similar regulations.

For further information on this topic please contact Andreas Lauffs at Baker & McKenzie's Hong Kong office by telephone (+852 2846 1888) or by fax (+852 2845 0476) or by email (andreas.lauffs@bakernet.com).