29.01.10 16:28 Age: 16 yrs
Lehman, Lee & Xu: the economy has had a deep effect on labor issues in China
Beijing, China, January 29, 2010 --- It is reported that more than 200 employees have blocked the gate of a factory belonging to Panasonic Corporation of China for several days in a desperate attempt to secure a better severance deal after the company announced that the factory would be relocated from its current location in Beijing to Guangdong, where labor costs are lower.
Panasonic Electronic Devices (Beijing) Company runs two production lines at the factory, which is close to Beijing's international airport, and has manufactured capacitors since 1996. The company announced to workers that it planned to move one of the production lines to Guangdong province because of the high cost of producing parts in Beijing. Consequently, workers were being asked to "volunteer" to leave the company. However, workers thought that they were being dismissed. As one of the workers said, "we don't want to lose our jobs, but if we can get money, at least it will be a consolation to us and our families."
During the past year, many Chinese workers have lost their jobs as a result of many businesses closing down throughout China, particularly in southern China. "Ever since the world financial crisis began more than a year ago, workers in China have been deeply affected", said Edward Lehman, Managing Director of Lehman, Lee & Xu, who as an American lawyer and has been working in China for more than 20 years.
It seems that the key point in the Panasonic case is the calculation of the severance package owed to the workers. It has been reported that many of the workers have been employed with Panasonic in Beijing for more than 10 years. However, the factory wishes to dismiss the workers paying less severance than the workers expected, and even less than another two factories, also belonging to Panasonic, have recently paid to their dismissed workers.
"During the past two or three years, China has adopted the Labor Contract Law and the Labor Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Law," pointed out Scott Garner, Senior Foreign Legal Counsel and Director of Lehman, Lee & Xu's Shanghai office. "Those newly adopted laws provide a strong protection to the legitimate interests of both employees and the employers, as well as a clear guideline for resolving the disputes between employees and employers", he added.
"The Labor Contract Law of China has specific provisions on the severance pay to the dismissed workers", said John Lee, Senior Attorney with Lehman, Lee & Xu. "The severance package should be decided in accordance with the years the workers have worked in the company," he clarified.
As a top-three commercial law firm in China, Lehman, Lee & Xu has provided a variety of legal services related to labor issues to a number of multinational corporations, individuals and other foreign entities in China, including embassies from North American, Europe, Asia and South Africa.
For more information about Lehman, Lee & Xu, please visit the firm's website at www.lehmanlaw.com
