Opinion: Regulating labour dispatch

In 2007, the PRC Employment Contract Law (中华人民共和国劳动合同法) was born amidst enormous controversy. Just five years later on July 9 2012, the draft amendment to the Law was released for public comments and has caused even more controversy. More than 130,000 people submitted nearly 560,000 comments during the one-month public consultation period, creating a new record for the number of comments ever received for a draft law. Among scholars, employment lawyers and human resources professionals, the debate on the draft amendment is heated.

The draft amendment contains four articles, all of which attempt to enhance the restrictions on an employment model called labour dispatch. In our view, the draft amendment is not likely to solve the problems it intends to. We also expect that the draft amendment will be difficult to pass, given the intense disagreement and strong pushback from state-owned enterprises.