All workers in Henan Province will be required to sign labor contracts before the end of 2008, under the three-year labor contract enhancement action plan that began officially on August 14.

So far, 2.261 million employees in the public sector (state-owned enterprises) have signed labor contracts, accounting for 97 percent of the total. In urban areas, among other types of enterprises, 935,000 employees, or 50.3 percent, have signed contracts. In private enterprises and in smaller businesses, 859,000 employees or 41 percent of the workforce, have met this requirement.

While these figures may provide an encouraging start, in other industries, the contract-signing ratio is still very low. The number of migrant workers coming to Henan Province exceeds 17 million. According to a survey on 11 industries including construction sites, mining facilities and manufacturing plants which was conducted during the first half of 2006, of the 1.576 million migrant workers employed, 746,000, or 40 percent had been provided with contracts. In the manufacturing industry, this number falls to below 30 percent, with only 111,000 out of 368,300 migrant workers being contracted in 5,484 enterprises.

Meng Xia, a researcher with the Henan Provincial Department of Labor and Social Security's wage office, announced that the three year action plan aims to regulate the enterprises' attitude towards employment and to ensure that all employees, no matter their status, are regulated under official labor contracts.

By the end of 2006, the ratio of contracted employees in state-owned and collective enterprises should have risen to over 90 percent. This ratio should reach more than 80 percent among other types of enterprises, in urban areas.

Over the next two years, this scheme should see all public sector enterprises fully comply with this regulation by the end of 2007 and all private sector employees being contracted by the end of 2008.

Zhao Ming, vice director of the Henan Provincial Department of Labor and Social Security's supervision office said that the labor contract should be signed directly between qualified employers and the employees themselves, ruling out all illegal substitution signing. Contract deadlines should be made clear by both sides and contracts should be reported to the labor authorities for recordation. All contracts should also clearly point out the paying standard of the wage, the adequate form of pay-slips and the time of payment.

(China.org.cn by Li Xiaohua, August 17, 2006)