The Labor and Social
Security authority of Shanghai's Zhabei District overruled two job
displacement cases last week on the eve of the implementation of
the new Labor Contract Law, safeguarding the jobs of over 2,000
workers.
In the first case,
involving 800 workers, a company tried to sidestep the relevant
articles in the new Labor Contract Law on forbidding "illegal labor
dispatch", the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post
reported.
The company had some 800
employees who worked under one of its subsidiary companies as
dispatched employees. The practice is legal for the moment but not
when the new Labor Contract Law comes into effect on January 1,
2008, as the new law will only permit third-party work force to
supply dispatched employees. So the company wanted to put an end to
their "illegal operation" by simply dismissing the 800
workers.
As soon as the company
filed its dismissal application to Zhabei District labor and social
security authority, it received attention due to the scale and
timing of its dismissal. Officials with the district's labor and
social security supervision body and labor unions intervened and
talked to the managers of the company and finally reached a
solution to secure the interest of both the employers and
employees.
In the final deal,
competent workers among the 800 were absorbed into the company and
most of the others were delivered to other lawful labor dispatch
companies on the premise that their wages and benefits were kept,
and the few who wanted to work at other places terminated their
labor contracts in a lawful manner.
The second case is about
a company that wanted to evade signing "open-ended labor contracts"
with veteran employees by dismissing them ahead of the
implementation of the new Labor Contract Law.
The company, also a
labor dispatch company, planned to end labor contracts with its
some 1,200 employees before the end of December.
The new Labor Contract
Law stipulates that employees who have signed a fixed-term contract
for two consecutive years are entitled to sign a contract that has
no fixed term with agreement by both parties.
The company feared once
a contract that has no fixed term is signed, it will run into
difficulties should it find the need to dismiss its veteran
employees.
But with the
intervention of Zhabei District labor and social security
authority, the company finally gave up and pledged to do justice to
its employers. In the aftermath, 1,990 employees were restored to
their posts.
"If the labor contract
between the employer and the employee is not expired, an employer
can only dismiss its employee through legal procedures," an
official with the Zhabei District labor and social security bureau
said.
A sudden dismissal only
aimed at sidestep responsibilities of the new Labor Contract Law is
certainly improper and should be stopped, the official
said.
Altogether, the two
cases saved the jobs of 2,000 employees.
Shanghai's labor and
social security authorities have pledged to do more promotional
work regarding the new Labor Contract Law and urged companies not
to dismiss employees in a quick manner ahead of the new
year.
(CRI December 18,
2007)