In Labor
April 21, 2009 by Chinatex
I like the lawyer joke that goes: “what do you call a million lawyers at the bottom of the sea?” A good start! It’s not my favorite one or the funniest, but if you want to buy Old Chinatex a beer he’ll tell you the best one. Anyway, check out this article from the China Daily. No need for me to add my comments as i told y’all what would happen as a result of the “new” (now more than a year old) labor law in China. While there are legitimate disputes as a result of the changes to the laws, the reality is there are more hungry lawyers willing to sue employers on behalf of their poor and innocent clients. As Old Chinatex tells his clients, “a foreign company has a snowballs chance in hell of winning in court against a chinese person”. If you would like more info on the labor laws, send me an email info@chntxlaw.com and i will send you the memo i distributed to my clients last year on the labor laws. For now stay out of labor. Yeeha!! Chinatex
Cases soar as workers seek redress
(China Daily) Updated: 2009-04-22 07:53
The number of labor disputes heard by courts has skyrocketed this year with many employees choosing legal avenues before trying to sort out problems with their bosses, experts said on Tuesday. Figures from the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) showed 98,568 cases in the first three months this year, a 59-percent year-on-year rise.
“Amid the global financial crisis, the number of businesses going into the red or going bankrupt continues to grow, leading to more disputes over salary claims,” said Du Wanhua, chief of the SPC’s No 1 civil trials tribunal. “Ever since the implementation of the Labor Contract Law in January 2008, workers have become more aware of their rights and the legal avenues available to safeguard them.”
A revision of regulations on lawsuit fees in 2007 reduced costs to 10 yuan ($1.50) per case, while at some courts they are free. Previously, costs were based on the amount of money involved.
Wang Linqing, a professor of civil law at Renmin University of China, told China Daily that the economic downturn and the revised laws could be putting more pressure on the courts, with some workers filing lawsuits as a first step rather than discussing the issues with their employers.
Wang suggested that more out-of-court mediation be used with extensive participation of government departments, labor unions, residents’ or villagers’ committees as well as mediators. Qiu Baochang, dean of Beijing-based Huijia Law Firm, agreed. “Workers should not rely solely on the courts and arbitration committees. Fair labor treatment can also be achieved through negotiations between workers and enterprises,” Qiu said.
The law, which took effect last year, includes clauses on overtime payment, compensation for contract termination and wages for departing staff who had served at least one year.
Last year, 286,221 disputes were heard, a 93-percent rise on 2007, with the number nearly tripling in some coastal cities.
Courts in Guangdong province heard 20,163 labor disputes during the first three months this year, up 41.6 percent year-on-year, the SPC data showed, while in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces the figures jumped 50 and 64 percent to 11,782 and 6,513.
In the past, most disputes were related to damages for injuries or payment, but there has been a sharp rise in workers claiming back pay for social insurance and pensions, as well as lawyers, accountants and auditors suing employers for grievances related to the process of signing, terminating or halting labor contracts
Fearing an increase in disputes might affect social stability, the SPC has been working on a judicial interpretation of the Labor Contract Law since last July to uniform trial standards nationwide. “We encourage enterprises to assume more social responsibility, and try not to lay off workers or reduce salaries. On the other hand, we suggest workers show more understanding toward enterprises in financial difficulties,” Du said. Still, courts will punish such violations as arbitrary retrenchment, and guide employees and enterprises in resolving disputes through shorter working hours, training shifts, temporary vacations or salary negotiations, Du added.
Renminbie
April 14, 2009 by Chinatex
Okay, i know there is no e in Renminbi, which means the people’s money, and not to be confused with OPP. Remember when Vice President Dan Quayle spelled potato with an e, yeah “potatoe”. He was ridiculed for the entire four years he was our illustrious vp and should have provided foresighte for what was to come with GW Bushe. Kind of like how they add an extra e to massage here in the middle kingdom. Being a linguiste, english major and purveyor of fei hua (bullshit for those of you who don’t speak chinese) I often correct them and tell them it is massage, not massagee. No lucke so far. I forgote what this blog poste is about - need more fishee oil. Old Chinatexe told y’all awhile back that companies importing and exporting from Guangdong Province would be allowed to settle transactions in the people’s money (RMB) in Hong Kong. Shhhhh, this means we don’t have to sneake money over the border anymore! Well, who knowse what it really means until the regulationsee are publisheed. Check out the below articlee and the questionable spelling of program (programme) not to be confused with a schemee or pogrom. Must have been written by Dan Quaylee. Yee ha!!! Chinatex.
Tsang set to outline Hong Kong’s role in renminbi clearing scheme
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen is expected to explain Hong Kong’s role in the renminbi clearing scheme today after the State Council yesterday named Shanghai and four cities in Guangdong to take part in the pilot programme.
The State Council approved the scheme, which will allow exporters and importers in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Dongguan to settle cross-border trade deals in yuan. A Hong Kong government spokesman said: “We in Hong Kong have completed the necessary technical preparations for becoming the first place outside the mainland to operate the pilot programme. We will work closely with the relevant mainland authorities to ensure a smooth operation of the programme.”
Premier Wen Jiabao had pledged the nation’s support for Hong Kong, saying that plans had been drawn up for renminbi trade settlement in the city, to be implemented as soon as they had received approval from the State Council.
Yesterday, the council – presided over by Mr Wen – urged departments concerned to issue rules relating to the trial scheme as soon as possible. But Xinhua did not release details of the pilot scheme.
Yuan settlement was in accordance with market demand, said Cao Honghui, a researcher with the Institute of Finance under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), but increasing the yuan’s global acceptance would be decided by factors such as the nation’s economic development and improvements to the financial system.
Beijing has been arranging currency swaps with trading partners to bypass the US dollar in trade settlements. CASS economist Zhang Bin said these swaps would guarantee the progress of yuan settlement.
It was announced in December after a State Council meeting that companies in Hong Kong and Macau would be allowed to use yuan to settle trade in goods with partners in Guangdong and the Yangtze River Delta under a pilot programme.
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Paggie Leung SCMP Apr 09, 2009
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Tax Heaven or Haven?
April 4, 2009 by Chinatex
In case y’all were sleeping during the recent G 20 shindig in London, or you were so mesmerized by Barack Obama’s charm and willingness to love everyone, you might not of noticed the biggest thing to come out of the summit. As always, Old Chinatex was not sleeping, and only mesmerized by Sarkozy’s wife – for a few minutes. I was looking out for all of you and that is why I didn’t miss the most important thing – the communique (fancy word for a memorandum of understanding). At the end of the Summit the leaders agree to a bunch of stuff and sign a document on what they agreed to – communique. While the U.S. and EU are spending themselves into irrelevancy, they are also looking for all the tax money they can steal from their citizens and have been bullying other countries into releasing confidential data on their citizens bank accounts – so they can legally take the money. Looks like China would not be bullied. Read the below articles and you’ll see what Old Chinatex found so important. Hope you all are able to avoid as much taxes as possible. Yeeha!! Chinatex
Leaders see end to banking secrecy
By Alex Barker and Vanessa Houlder in London and Jamil Anderlini in Beijing
Published: April 2 2009 19:56 | Last updated: April 2 2009 19:56
Leaders of the G20 nations on Thursday declared that “the era of banking secrecy is over”, Maybe not just yet!! calling for the immediate publication of a list of countries that fell short of international standards. A blacklist of countries that were unwilling to co-operate on information sharing ran to six countries as talks began on Thursday. But the threat of being named convinced Brunei, Guatemala and Malaysia to agree to begin implementing reforms. This left Costa Rica, the Philippines and Uruguay to be “named and shamed” on a list, expected to be published by the Paris-based OECD.
The politicians threatened to take action against “non-co-operative jurisdictions, including tax havens”, asking the OECD to report back by November’s meeting of finance ministers in Scotland. They said: “We stand ready to deploy sanctions to protect our public finances and financial systems so that we can steal money from our own citizens to pay for our incompetence.”
The blacklist is likely to prove highly controversial although most of the offshore financial centres that have been the target of criticism are contained in a second list. This names about 38 countries that have promised greater transparency but not yet signed agreements, ranging from countries such as Panama that apparently committed to greater transparency years ago to jurisdictions such as Singapore and Switzerland, which have only recently announced plans to become more ttransparent.
A lawyer dismissed the mooted blacklist as a “face-saving exercise, with mainly inconsequential players.” Maybe, but it is the small crack in the wall that the thieves in government will use to drive a wedge and open up the coffers.
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France who pushed hard for the blacklist said the results of the summit were “beyond what we could have imagined . . . We are all happy with the results.” Not so happy indeed because you don’t have the power or leverage to make China bend to your pressure and you never will. See the article below if you want to know how happy Sarkozy was. Seems the U.S. president had to bail them out once again.
US officials said that Barack Obama had helped broker a compromise over offshore centres between Hu Jintao, China’s president, and Mr Sarkozy, who had threatened to walk away from the summit. The politicians faced difficulty in finding objective criteria to single out jurisdictions that do not currently exchange tax information, given the insistence from China that Hong Kong was not targeted and the resistance of European Union members to putting European countries on the list.
For an hour, Mr Sarkozy and Mr Hu argued about tax havens, US and European sources in the conference room said. Mr Sarkozy wanted the final G20 communique to endorse a list of global tax havens – maybe even including Hong Kong and Macau. The sources said Mr Hu appeared angry that Mr Sarkozy was effectively accusing China of lax regulation, and that the French leader was asking China to endorse sanctions issued by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a club of wealthy nationsBeijing
has yet to join. The G20 gave the OECD the task of compiling the list of tax havens.
Accounts from White House officials, corroborated by European and other officials also in the room, said Mr Obama escorted both men, one at a time, to a corner of the room. “Let’s get this all in some kind of perspective, guys,” he said. He tapped Mr Sarkozy on the shoulder and, along with each man’s economic adviser and translator, suggested a change. How about replacing the word “recognise”, Mr Obama suggested, with the word “note”?
When Mr Sarkozy concurred, Mr Obama invited Mr Hu to the corner and asked what he thought. Within an hour, the other participants looked over to see Mr Obama, Mr Sarkozy and Mr Hu sealing the agreement with handshakes. The haggling had continued until five minutes before the summit closed. Oh, that Barack Obama, what a great guy!! I am so happy that now Americans are loved all over the world again and I don’t have to call myself a Canadian anymore.
In the end, Hong Kong and Macau did not even appear on the list of tax havens. Instead, they were referred to in the form of a notation, which said China’s special administrative regions had only “committed to implement” the appropriate tax standards, although they had yet to substantially do so. This is the important part and good for all of us doing business in Asia
