The forum in session.

An academic forum was held on March 22, 2005 on women’s labor rights and interests. Participating were some 50 experts from China Society for Human Rights Studies, All-China Women’s Federation, All-China Federation of Trade Unions, as well as the Chinese People’s University and other prestigious institutions of higher learning. Jointly sponsored by the Labor and Social Security Branch of Beijing Law Society (BLS) and Chinese Women’s College (CWC), the forum reviewed the achievements China had made in protecting women’s labor rights and interests and proposed ways of improving work in this regard.

Professor Guan Huai, dean of the Law School of the CPU and concurrently director of the BLS Labor and Social Security Laws Branch, called attention to the importance of protecting women’s labor rights and interests. “This,” he said, “is an important part of the nationwide endeavor to build a harmonious society in response to a latest call of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee.” Women account for 38% of the labor force employed by Chinese enterprises and institutions. Professor Guan Huai held that realization of women’s right to labor and social security is of paramount importance to women’s liberation and realization of gender equality. He also called for effort to bring into full play the role of women in China’s modernization drive. Meanwhile, he demanded that labor protection for women be improved and equal pay for equal work be guaranteed through labor legislation and enforcement of the relevant laws. “Women find it more difficult than men in getting employed,” he noted. “Illegal firing of women and use of female minors as laborers are not exceptional.”

Associate Professor Liu Minghui of the Department of Law of the CWC, insisted that realization of women’s right to labor and social security is the prerequisite for realization of all the other rights to which women are entitled. The social status of a women hinges on whether she is financially independent.” Liu Minghua proposed that the Labor Law be revised in such a way as to make it a law of attorney, rather than a law of protection. “That means,” she explained, “the right of the involved parties to selection is fully respected under the revised Labor Law, and the same law should establish women as the subjects of rights.”

Laws on promotion of employment, labor contracts and social insurance have been planned by the Chinese legislature. Associate Professor Liu Minghui proposed that an anti-gender discrimination mechanism be set up under the Employment Promotion Law. “The law should ban gender discrimination by any employer in terms of job opportunities and treatment of employees, and should punish those proven to have acted in disregard of the ban,” she said. The government, on its part, should, over a certain period to come, adopt special measures to protect women’s right to employment. She said that these include free job training for women, tax privileges to encourage the hiring of women, and a system under which women are given priority in getting some jobs and account for a fixed proportion of the total staff in an enterprise or institution. The Labor Contracts Law, Liu continued, should have clauses of protection for women. There should be clauses that specify the responsibility for contractual protection, and clauses that prevent the employer from forcing women employers to resign by cutting their wages or transferring them to undesirable posts. “The law must guarantee that a woman shall return to her original post at the end of her maternity leave,” Liu insisted. As regards the Social Insurance Law, she said that the law must specify items exclusive for women, for example, birth insurance and industrial injuries that do harm to women and fetuses. “The same retirement age should be stipulated in this law,” she demanded.

Zhang Dongmei from the China Institute of Labor Relations proposed formulation of a law against gender discrimination in employment “when conditions are ripe.” This law, she envisaged, should specify the legal responsibilities for gender discrimination in employment.