The Economist reports that foreign businesses in China have not been paying much attention to a new labor law which will drastically change how they operate in the country:
For the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, big foreign companies are planning to add swarms of temporary employees. They had better think again. A sweeping new labour law passed on June 29th intended to enhance workers’ rights makes this and many other common practices illegal. The change has received little notice so far, possibly because it does not go into effect until January 1st 2008; possibly because firms do not realise that retroactive provisions in the law mean it has already begun to apply; but probably because companies do not realise how much the Chinese government is willing to change the legal standing of workers to advance the political mantra of a more “harmonious society“. [Full text]
Read more CDT coverage of the law and the controversy over its passage.
