• China has enacted legislation to protect its workforce from abusive employers.fishing in China image by marc from Fotolia.com
  
  The People's Republic of China is an emerging superpower in the Eastern hemisphere and the most populous country in the world. To fuel its rapid economic rise it has mobilized a substantial workforce from this population and, as a negative result, these workers can face being neglected and abused in a work-related manner, both by Chinese owned and foreign companies. Therefore, recent laws were drafted to combat this problem.
  
  

Labor Laws

• Most of China's labor laws are established under the Labor Law of the People's Republic of China Act, which was enacted on January,1995. This act is broken down into sub-sections detailing every aspect needed for the protection of the labor forces within China: from wages to safety and sanitation, working hours, welfare, labor disputes, contracts and social insurance.
  
  

Working Hours

• The working hours under Chinese law is fixed at eight hours per day and 44 hours per week (with nobody permitted to work beyond these hours unless special permission is obtained from authorities). Under an employee's contract, they should also be guaranteed at least one day off per week. The fixed working hours can be bypassed for special occasions such as peak production demands, if permission is successfully granted by both the workforce and the trade unions representing them. In case of emergencies such as. natural disasters or large-scale accidents, the rule requiring permission to extend the working hours can be bypassed.
  
  

Labor Contracts

• The Labor Law Act describes contracts as formal agreements between the laborers and the employers of the firm or corporation where they apply to work. It proclaims that contracts should adequately establish the relationship between the two bodies as well as the obligations, the rights and interests of the respective parties. An employment contract in China must be legally binding by law and must follow the principles of agreement via cooperation and equality between not only workers, but also between the employee and employer. Any contracts that have been established via fraudulent means, threat or any other way that is against Chinese law is considered void.
  
  

Wages

• This section opens with a statement that can be summarized as requiring employees receive an equal wage determined by their working hours-with the chance of rising wages in the event of economic expansion. However, the law doesn't allow companies to have full control over total payrolls, instead leaving it in government hands. The state creates the system that determines the guaranteed minimum wage of the country and the employers of the companies are left to decide on wage distribution.