Lawyer Chen Shu is no stranger to China's new laws: the Property Law, Law on Administrative Approval, Law on Protection of Minors, Law on Enterprise Income Tax, Law on Enterprise Bankruptcy and Labor Contract Law. Not only because she is in the profession, but also because she has participated in legislation of the laws in the past five years.
Fifty-four-year-old Chen, secretary general of the Guangzhou Bar Association in southern Guangdong Province, has been re-elected deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's parliament, this year, which is composed of no more than 3,000 deputies. Their proposals should be considered carefully and answered within a certain time period.
Chen brings two proposals to this year's congressional session. "They are proposals urging for building accessory laws to the Labor Contract Law which takes effect on Jan. 1 this year and to the Emergency Response Law which takes effect on Nov. 1 last year."
"I contact the grassroots people in my daily work. It gives me enough time to hear their voices, understand their complaints and help find ways to tackle the problems," Chen said.
What made Chen accept the deputy position is that "it provided a platform for a legal worker to participate in the national legislation process and could maximize a lawyer's value in working for the public."
Migrant workers
Chen has been consistently focusing on migrant workers' rights protection, as Guangdong is an important employer of the peasant-turned-migrant workers who are seeking jobs at the manufacturing center.
Chen often visited factories and listened to the migrant workers' voices.
She found the migrant population was suffering from severe discrimination. They could not enjoy the same salary level or welfare. Some local governments even believed they were robbing local residents of job opportunities. They were not allowed to join labor unions and didn't know how to protect their rights. They were vulnerable to back wages and often had little compensation after suffering work injuries.
Based on the research, Chen proposed to the NPC the protection of migrant workers' rights by revising the labor union law at the legislative session in 2003, the first time she played her role as a deputy. About half a year later, the national labor union issued a circulation requiring all employers to permit their employees to join labor unions, no matter whether they are migrant or local workers.
Sensitive to the vulnerable
Chen's special experience makes her more sensitive to the vulnerable.
"When I was 14, I moved from Beijing to Yan'an, a relatively backward area in Shaanxi Province, to chadui, a campaign launched by Chairman Mao asking the urban young to go to experience the rural labor life. Then I had been working at the grassroots judicial institutions for more than 30 years," Chen said.
"I had seen many hardships of the poor and built up an earnest understanding through my experiences on how public policies could influence a common civilian's life," said Chen. "A civilian's life is the foundation of any society."