Does the new labor law in China apply to foreign workers?

Answer 1

There should be No ambiguity about this law or reason to lead to the above question. The Labor Contract Law (LCL) does NOT make ANY distinctions among Workers, or Classes of Workers as to exceptions / exemptions to this Law (the LCL does make mention early on that Civil Servants are covered under a different law). Nowhere in the LCL are Foreigners excluded. If they are excluded, then what special LAW (Not Regulation, which has No standing of Law) is written for them? The LCL recognizes the rights of ALL LEGAL workers. Therefore if a foreigner has at the time in question has legal papers that would allow him/her to work in China, that person would be covered under the LCL.

There was a case ( I mean a REAL COURT CASE ) of a person who had been in China for 3 years as a teacher for public schools in the city that he lived in. He taught 1 year in a primary school and then 2 years at a middle school in the same city. He was Respected in the community and Highly Recommended. This person through these public schools had ALL the correct documents (resident and work permits, health check... etc). He also had his own negotiated and signed contract with the schools. The public schools in China are a part of the Government, so this person was basically working for the Chinese Government.

The same Government that Passed the LCL and allows its citizens to use it against foreign companies.

Toward the end of his SECOND contract with the middle school the teacher tried to get a new contract with the school. The school refused. Amazingly the teacher was able to get his case heard by the Labor Arbitration Department of the City. The school was angry and believed themselves totally above the law and fought this. The teacher COMPLETED his second year contract and this served as his basic argument. The Argument was LCL article 14 part 3, Completion of 2 consecutive contracts.

This argument was made in Local Court and in District Court, it lost BOTH times. WHY? the Courts ruled both times that the teacher failed to meet the requirements of Article 14 part 2 (WHICH WAS NEVER ARGUED) and said NOTHING about Article 14 part 3. This teacher endured many hardships, threats and police situations. In the end he was in custody and deported with only 1 suitcase. It was interesting to note that his embassy was very aware of this as it happened and sent a witness to the District Court procedures.

Why did this happen? The very corrupt Headmaster (there are various reports of his misdealings in the local paper) of this school decided that he would apply for the money for a foreign teacher BUT he was going to put that money in his pocket and get rid of foreign teacher.

That city was JINHUA CHINA. The school # 8 Middle School. The headmaster Mr. WU QI. The period of arbitration, court and appeals, deportation was APR 2011 - Apr 2012. That person was an American.

Long Answer to your question .......The Labor Law (any Labor Law) does Not apply to foreigners according to court order in JINHUA CHINA. The only question that remains is weather this is to support official corruption by an official, or a group of corrupt officials or it is a victory of the CHINESE system over all the Foreigners.