The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's legislature, began examination
today of the draft law on employment promotion.
"A law on employment promotion is urgently needed given our
current situation," said Minister of Labor and Social Security Tian Chengping when briefing the lawmakers on
the country's employment situation today.
According to Tian, China's present employment figures are
disappointingly low and the long-term outlook is not "optimistic."
Statistics show that at least 13 million new job opportunities need
to be annually created in urban areas for laid-off workers,
university graduates, demobilized servicemen, and migrant
workers.
The draft law states that China will implement coordinated
employment policies in both urban and rural areas to provide equal
employment opportunities for the labor force. Under new
regulations, governments above the county level will be required to
establish an early warning system to prevent, regulate and control
possible cases of large-scale unemployment.
An important stipulation prohibits discrimination against job
seekers on account of ethnicity, race, gender, religious belief,
age, or physical disability. The law also states that
government-run employment service agencies must provide free
services to the labor force and are prohibited from commercial
operations.
The draft law has a special chapter on boosting professional
training, requiring governments above the county level to support
vocational schools, other professional training organizations and
employers to launch pre-employment training, on-the-job training
and reemployment training.
Governments above the county level should provide some
professional training for students who fail to enter university or
senior high school, so that they can grasp some skills and even
obtain some occupational qualification certificates.
The draft law requires relevant departments to further increase
financial investment in employment promotion, encourage enterprises
and companies to recruit the unemployed, guide university graduates
to work in under-developed areas, and make detailed research on the
labor market.
The three-day 26th meeting of the 10th NPC Standing Committee
opened today.
(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2007)