The policy will not be officially carried out until approved at the annual meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC), which will open soon.

Although this kind of employment concept was rejected years ago because it was too difficult to implement, China wants to try again.

China Women's News recently published a series of articles discussing the topic, reflecting views of government officials, scholars and the public.

Restructuring the centrally planned Chinese economy into a more market-oriented one has forced many enterprises to lay off workers to increase efficiency. As a result, cradle-to-grave welfare is gone forever.

Zhang Zuoyi, minister of labor and social security, believes periodic employment - where workers can move more freely between jobs - is a critical part of a changing employment pattern under a market economy.

According to the principle of State personnel reform, the competitive contract system should be introduced in enterprises or institutions operating under all kinds of ownership.

This means that people will no longer be guaranteed a job for life.

This system also makes re-employment easier, Zhang said.

Flexible part-time and seasonal jobs, increasing with the soaring demands for service in the community, are more suitable for older and unskilled laid-off workers.

Chen Lijia, an official from the Social Development Department of State Development Planning Commission, said a flexible job market would play a positive role in shaping a mature labor market.

As an important policy of government macro-economic regulation, expanding employment is a substantial guarantee of social stability and sustainable economic growth.

When labor-intensive collectively run or private-owned businesses are booming with the encouragement of the State, employment mobility will inevitably increase.

Still, such an economic system still requires a reliable welfare support.

This kind of job pattern was originally a feature of working women's lives because they would quit to have children.

Jiang Yongping, a scholar with the Institute on Women's Study under the All-China Women's Federation, pointed out that periodic and flexitime jobs can have a negative influence on women, though it does not target them in particular.

Investigations from countries in the European Union have indicated that their low employment rate is closely linked to the fact that many women are doing low-paid, part-time jobs with insufficient welfare.

In fact, periodic employment can be one of the worst results of market-based social justice, Jiang warned.

The rapid growth of the non-State economy has seen an increase in gender discrimination in the workplace.

Periodic employment has become a euphemism for companies to refuse to take on or to sack women of child-bearing age.

Periodic employment should not become a precursor to periodic unemployment.

Wang Jianguo, director of the Training and Development Department of Legend Group, a leading IT company in China, said there would be more employment options with the progress of China's economy. Employees should be more active in deciding when to work and when to study instead of complying with the arrangements of the State or employers.

Periodic employment requires employees to be more independent. At the very least, this should teach them something about themselves.

(China Daily 03/02/2001)