Do employees have the right to be members of a trade union?

Yes, an employee is free to join a trade union or not to join as he chooses. The membership dues would be 0.5% of his income.

Is there any legal requirement for an employer to contribute to a pension for employees?

The employer is obligated to pay the social insurance premiums for the employee in accordance with the law.

What are standard maternity rights?

According to the Labour Law, a pregnant woman is entitled to 90 days maternity leave and local labour regulations in many cities provide for an additional 30 days leave for pregnant women over 24 years of age who give birth to their first child. The woman's salary shall be fully paid during her maternity leave from social insurance payments and payments from her employer. The employer may not terminate a pregnant woman unless she meets any of the following conditions: fails to meet recruitment requirements within the probation period, brings a severe loss to the employer due to her dereliction, seeks personal profit from her position, materially violates the company's internal bylaws, establishes an employment relationship with another employers, or has been convicted of a crime.

What are parental leave rights (including paternity leave)?

There is currently no national law providing for parental leave. However, local labour regulations in some cities does set forth paternity leave ranging from 3 days to 7 days for fathers whose spouse is over 24 years old when the mother gives birth.

When are employees eligible for redundancy payments?

If an employer experiences serious business difficulty, restructuring, or a major change in its economic environment, it could go through "economic retrenchment" and pay redundancy payment to the retrenched employees. The employer shall go through a strict process for retrenchment, including holding a staff conference to inform the employees of the situation and their rights, consulting with the employees union, and reporting the situation to the local labour authorities.

What are the statutory redundancy payment limits?

The redundancy payment shall be calculated on the basis of the employee's service length, basically one month of salary for every year of service. The monthly salary shall be capped at three times the local average salary and the service years shall also be capped at 12 years if the salary is already capped.

Can existing employees be dismissed if you buy a business with employees?

No. Art.33 and Art.34 of the Labor Contract Law expressly provide that the change of the enterprise name, the legal representative, the shareholder shall not prejudice the performance of the labor contract and that the transferee of the business is obliged to perform the contract after the merger or division.

An express courier company, after deciding to terminate the employment of one of its employees, failed to inform this employee at the time of its decision and only informed the employee by an online message. On learning the decision, the employee brought a lawsuit against the company. On Apr. 27, the People's Court of Xihu District of Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province made its first-instant judgment for the case, finding that the express company was required to rehire the terminated employee and pay the employee back wages and other economic compensation.

Zhang Jing was hired as a driver for the express courier company and began working for the company in June of 2008. However, the company did not actually enter into an employment contract with her until three months later, in Sept 2008. The contract term was for two years with the contract terminating on Aug. 31, 2010. Her basic wage was to be RMB 60 Yuan per day plus subsidy.

In Jan. 2009, the express company, stating that the employee had refused to work under the reasonable arrangements set by the company, terminated her employment. In Aug. 2009, the Arbitration Committee for Labor Disputes of Nanchang City rendered its arbitration decision requiring the company to rehire the employee, arrange a suitable position for her, and pay double pay to her for the three-month period in which she worked for the company without a written labor contract. ourt to reject the plaintiff's unjustified claims.

On appeal, the People's Court held that the company's decision to fire the employee was invalid as the termination notification was not sent to the employee. Therefore, the employee was still an employee of the company and both parties should continue to perform the employment contract. In addition to back-pay, holiday and vacation pay, penalties for late payment of wages, and unpaid social insurance payments, the employer was required to pay double salary as a penalty for the three months in which the employer had failed to enter into an employment contract with the employee.

From the beginning of 2010, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Shanxi,, Shandong, Shanghai, and Tianjin have raised their minimum wage rates by more than 10%, with some raising it over 20%. According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, another twenty provinces are planning to raise their minimum wage rates later this year.