AGL 40.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.02%)
AIRLINK 127.04 Decreased By ▼ -0.95 (-0.74%)
BOP 6.67 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (1.06%)
CNERGY 4.51 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-1.96%)
DCL 8.55 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (0.83%)
DFML 41.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.1%)
DGKC 86.85 Increased By ▲ 0.27 (0.31%)
FCCL 32.28 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (0.44%)
FFBL 64.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.62 (-0.95%)
FFL 10.25 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
HUBC 109.57 Decreased By ▼ -0.92 (-0.83%)
HUMNL 14.68 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-0.47%)
KEL 5.05 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-1.56%)
KOSM 7.46 Increased By ▲ 0.34 (4.78%)
MLCF 41.38 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-0.65%)
NBP 60.41 Increased By ▲ 0.32 (0.53%)
OGDC 190.10 Decreased By ▼ -4.59 (-2.36%)
PAEL 27.83 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-0.43%)
PIBTL 7.83 Decreased By ▼ -0.17 (-2.13%)
PPL 150.06 Decreased By ▼ -1.11 (-0.73%)
PRL 26.88 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
PTC 16.07 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (0.44%)
SEARL 86.00 Increased By ▲ 7.80 (9.97%)
TELE 7.71 Increased By ▲ 0.32 (4.33%)
TOMCL 35.41 Decreased By ▼ -0.26 (-0.73%)
TPLP 8.12 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (2.65%)
TREET 16.41 Increased By ▲ 0.52 (3.27%)
TRG 53.29 Increased By ▲ 0.53 (1%)
UNITY 26.16 Decreased By ▼ -0.39 (-1.47%)
WTL 1.26 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.79%)
BR100 9,884 No Change 0 (0%)
BR30 30,600 No Change 0 (0%)
KSE100 93,868 Increased By 512.8 (0.55%)
KSE30 29,094 Increased By 162.7 (0.56%)

An influential European business group on Sunday said China must ensure a new law to help workers is respected, as the effectiveness of similar legislation has been "non-existent" in the past. A controversial bill on contract labour approved on Friday will safeguard job conditions but it must be enforced, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said.
"There is no doubt that the passing of the law and its strict implementation will drastically improve the working conditions in China," the statement said. But it warned of the dangers of non-compliance by companies and previous non-enforcement of existing laws by the authorities.
"In the environmental sector, we see Chinese legislation that is even stricter than European law, yet implementation is sometimes non-existent," chamber president Joerg Wuttke said. "A large gap between legislation and local governments' ability to implement laws has a detrimental impact on the credibility of the rule of the law," he added.
However, the chamber said it was not concerned about the effect of the law on European investment in China. "Several studies world-wide have proved that labour cost is not the primary factor influencing corporate investment strategy," it said.
"It is the market size and growth potential that turn out to be the chief reasons for investment." The new labour law bill will try to end frequent abuses-many of them endured by China's huge army of migrant workers-by threatening officials with criminal prosecution if their neglect results in serious harm to workers. The bill, to take effect from January 1, 2008, also bans the use of rolling probationary contracts, where workers are denied a full-time position despite working in the same job for a long time.
Workers hired by agencies are to be given the same protection and insurance as full-time workers, a situation that previously was biased against migrant workers hired from abroad.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007

Comments

Comments are closed.