At 55, Zhou Xinghua, a cashier, felt that she was nowhere near
ready to stop work and spend the rest of her life in
retirement.
But it seemed that she had no choice her boss informed her that
she would have to hand in her notice within the year.
Zhou's feelings of frustration from not being able to work are
being echoed amongst thousands of Chinese women across the country
every year. A provisional regulation, made about three decades ago,
specifically lays down the retirement age for women and men
employees working for enterprises.
The regulations state that a woman has to retire at 50 and a man
at 55, if they are common workers. But if they work in government
or State institutions, a woman with official rankings of section
leaders or lower or with professional standings of an associate
professor or lower retires at 55. But 60 is the age of retirement
for a man of the same rank.
The above retirement ages were stipulated in the Provisional
Regulations on Resettlement of the Old and Weak Cadres, which were
promulgated by the State Council in 1978.
In the 27 years of the existing regulations, Zhou is the first
person to oppose the rule, and has taken the case to the courts to
say no.
The cashier accused her employer Pingdingshan Branch of China
Construction Bank (CCB), of
gender discrimination for ordering her to retire at 55, at the
Intermediate Court of Pingdingshan, central China's
Henan Province last December.
"Everyone has taken it for granted that a woman should stay at
home and look after grandchildren, if there are any, when she turns
50 or 55," she said.
"But at that age, many women still feel they are strong,
energetic and experienced at work," she noted.
The strongest supporter of the woman has been her son, who
supported her in court as one of her lawyers.
Li Hao, the son, is a postgraduate student of the law school at
Sichuan University in Chengdu.
"My mother is like the kid in the tale 'The Emperor's New
Clothes' by Arthur Andersen," Li said.
"When people remain silent about a troublesome issue, she has
the courage to speak out."
The bank clerk is not a rebellious woman by nature. She has long
been a conscientious Chinese office worker, who was devoted to her
job but beavered away quietly on most occasions hardly catching the
attention of her superiors, said Li, her son.
Married to a pilot in the army, Zhou had to change her job
several times during the 1970s as her husband moved around the
country.
The couple finally settled down at Pingdingshan in 1989, and
since then Zhou worked in the cashier division of the bank and
became deputy head of the division three years later.
It has been Zhou's responsibility to look after the bank's vault
since the beginning of this century. The job required a significant
amount of paper work and physical labor she was required to carry
more than 100 heavy boxes of money in and out of the vault every
day.
Despite the challenges, she has greatly enjoyed her job and was
disappointed to hear the news that she would have to retire last
year.
She then read on the Internet that requests had been put forward
to the central government to amend the 1978 provisional regulations
which her bank was enforcing.
The All-China Women's
Federation in 2005 proposed to the National People's Congress
(NPC),
the country's top legislature, that men and women civil servants
have the same retirement age instead of the current different
ones.
In 2003 deputies to the First Session of the Tenth NPC also
discussed a possible legislation stipulating that men and women
retire at the same age.
The discovery of such information gave Zhou confidence to take
the case to court but struggled to find a lawyer that would
represent her on the case.
"You cannot possibly win the case," she was told.
She was only able to gain the support of her son who was merely
a law student. However, on hearing of the case, the son's tutor,
Professor Zhou Wei of Sichuan University also agreed to help
represent the cashier.
With support from the two lawyers, the woman pleaded to the
arbitration committee of Pingdingshan last October, accusing the
bank of sexual discrimination.
However, the committee ruled that Zhou had failed to provide
sufficient evidence and legal basis to support her appeal and would
have to bear the total arbitral fee of 420 yuan (US$52).
The committee also said that it was not its responsibility to
judge whether the Regulations of 1978 contradict China's
Constitution, the Labor Law or related international laws signed by
the Chinese Government.
Throughout the world, more than 90 countries have adopted laws
stipulating the same retirement age for both men and women.
Instead, it said that the bank's decision to inform Zhou to
begin retirement procedures tallied with the current retirement
policy implemented in China.
Being notified of the rule, Zhou filed a lawsuit at the
Intermediate Court of Pingdingshan last December. The court opened
a public session for the case on December 14, but a decision has
not yet been reached.
"I have received hundreds of letters from women my age since my
case was made known to the public," said Zhou.
"Many of them went to great efforts to find me only to say
'thanks' for what I have done. It has been a touching experience,"
she added.
(China Daily February 9, 2006)