全国人大于2012年12月24日审议劳动合同法修正案 规范劳务派遣
Legislators on Dec. 24th, 2012 started to review the latest draft amendment to the Labor Contract Law, which aims to regulate labor outsourcing and ensure equality in workplaces.
"The key to regulating labor outsourcing is to ensure that outsourced employees receive the same wages as regular workers doing the same jobs," said Li Shishi, vice-chairman of the Law Committee of the National People's Congress.
Li explained the draft on Monday to members of the NPC Standing Committee, China's top legislative body.
The draft requires employers to pay the same wage to both regular workers and outsourced employees who are sent by employment agencies.
The country is home to about 60 million outsourced workers, accounting for almost 20 percent of the urban workforce, according to a report released in 2011 by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the nation's top union organization.
Many outsourced workers earn half the wages of regular employees, and they have fewer welfare benefits than regular workers doing the same jobs, Zou Zhen, director of the social security department under the union organization, told a news conference on Thursday.
In countries such as Japan and the United States, outsourced workers make up only about 3 percent of the workforce, said Zou.
"To address the overuse of labor outsourcing, we should make it clear that it should not be the main means of employment," said Li.
The draft stipulates labor-contract-based employment is the basic means of employment. Labor outsourcing is supplementary and can only be used to fill temporary, subsidiary and substit