International Law

Let?s F&@% the Working Man

By Stan

Why is this even an issue? Apparently some have been debating this:

China will not revise the Labor Contract Law to compromise workers’ rights as suggested by some people to help enterprises cope with the global financial turmoil, a legislator said here Monday.

Call me a pinko lefty type, but why would anyone turn to the workers in the face of financial chaos and plummeting demand? Oh yeah, wait a minute, this reminds me of a similar thing in the U.S. regarding union labor and the auto industry. Some people actually believe that the major U.S. auto manufacturers are going under because the unions are too strong. Ha ha. Strong unions in the U.S. — talk about living in the past.

Anyway, the government response to suggestions about revising the Labor Contract Law sounded about right:

"The labor contract law has nothing to do with the financial crisis and won’t be revised for it," said Xin Chunying, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s legislative body.

    "China’s labor relations are basically stable and orderly, and it can weather through the test of time," she told a press conference on the sidelines of NPC’s annual session, when asked if the law will be changed because increased labor costs have led to rising cases of bankruptcy on the Pearl River Delta.

    Citing a survey that tracts figures in the first nine months of the 2008, she said the law has indeed driven up enterprises’ labor costs by two percent, but it has also greatly curbed labor relations issues that have been afflicting workers as well as employers for years.

I think we can all live with that two percent increase during the transition period of the new law, can’t we?

Full post as published by China Hearsay on March 10, 2009 (boomark / email).