Some suggestions on employment law target foreigners

The National People's Congress (NPC) has received thousands of suggestions from the public on its draft employment law and some are targeting foreigners even though the draft provides no provisions to govern their employment, said a source with the NPC.

The draft employment promotion law, which was read for first time by the NPC Standing Committee in February, was released to the public for comments on March 25.

Although there are no official figures on the number of foreigners employed in China, an increasing numbers are now employed by private enterprises in management, technology and marketing. With the number of foreign companies launching branches or factories in China, some foreign companies too bring in a great number of foreign staff.

"It's very necessary to use law to regulate their employment in China," said one of the letters received by the NPC.

Other letters said some prosperous coastal areas are recruiting workers, especially women from other developing countries who work for less money than Chinese workers. "If no relevant law exist to regulate the importing labor, foreigners will make the already-strained domestic labor market even tighter."

Some people said China should follow international practice and regulate the employment of foreigners.

Some citizens suggested the law should also regulate the employment on mainland of people from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao .

An NPC official said on Monday that the current draft employment promotion law does not have any regulations governing the employment of workers for overseas. He said the NPC Standing Committee will further study the necessity of adding such regulations.

The NPC has to date received thousands of suggestions on the draft employment law. Mostly suggestions center on fighting employment discrimination, providing free employment services, promoting employment especially for university graduates, the disabled and the laid-off workers.

Source: Xinhua