Employment Discrimination Persists During Implementation of the Employment Promotion Law

China's Employment Promotion Law (EPL) took effect on January 1, 2008. Provisions in the law prohibit discrimination based on factors including gender (Art. 27), ethnicity (Art. 28), disability (Art. 29), whether or not the job candidate is a carrier of an infectious disease (Art. 30), and whether or not the job candidate is a migrant worker (Art. 31). Article 62 of the law permits workers to initiate lawsuits in cases of alleged discrimination. While plaintiffs have seen increased success in civil litigation against employers since the EPL took effect, experts continue to press for special legislation on employment discrimination, and efforts by both government and civil society groups to address discrimination continue (according to a March 3 People's Daily interview [via Sohu] with National People's Congress representative, Zhou Hongyu, and China University of Political Science and Law professor, Cai Dingjian.)

Discrimination

Based on Health Conditions

Beijing Yirenping Center, an advocacy group that works to combat discrimination against individuals who are carriers of certain diseases, reported in its "2008 Discrimination Against Hepatitis B Virus Carriers Survey Report" that of 92 multinational corporations surveyed from October to December 2008, at least 84 percent required potential employees to take a Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) test, and 44 percent refused to hire HBV carriers.

Dahe Net reported on February 27 that a college graduate filed a lawsuit against a provincial rural credit union in Zhengzhou city, Henan province, for employment discrimination based on his colorblindness. This was the first lawsuit in China that dealt with employment discrimination based on colorblindness. The plaintiff asked the court to order the credit union to pay him 3,000 yuan (US$439) as compensation for economic losses and 50,000 yuan (US$7,315) for emotional damages.

Based on Gender

Sixty-five percent of female college graduates consider gender discrimination their greatest barrier to finding employment, according to a survey reported in a March 12 Dazhong Daily article (reprinted in Xinhua). On average, men were able to secure a job interview after 2 or 3 resume submissions, while women only secured interviews after 8 to 10 resume submissions, according to the report. An employee of a corporation's human resources department, on the condition of anonymity, admitted that even though they collected women's resumes at job fairs, either no one would review those applications, or, after interviews, they would discuss ways to rule out female job seekers. Companies also have "raised the employment threshold" by adding requirements for female candidates regarding height, appearance, age, and marital and child-bearing status to "naturally disqualify" female job seekers, the article reported. For example, many companies at a job fair required women to be "slender and in good disposition," "between 1.68 and 1.72 meters" (between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 7 inches), or "between 45 and 55 kilograms" (between 99 and 121 pounds), according to a March 8 Sichuan News Net article (quoting a March 4 Beijing Evening News report). Some offices, including departments within the judicial system, even "brazenly" require that male employees be above 1.75 meters (5 feet 8 inches) and want to hire "no women" because employees are to "reflect the country's image," said National People's Congress representative Zhou Hongyu in the March 3 People's Daily interview cited above.

Tackling Employment Discrimination

Even though the EPL aims to promote equality in employment, it does not clearly define what actions constitute employment discrimination, nor does it fully detail penalties for those actions. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China reviewed a sample of over 30 other legal, regulatory, and supplemental documents issued at both the central and local levels that refer to the EPL, and found similar issues concerning clarity and detail in provisions regarding the definition of discrimination, enforcement, and relief to individuals subjected to alleged discrimination. According to an Internet survey reported in a January 17 Legal Daily article (via Xinhua), 90.1 percent of college students believe that discrimination exists in their chosen fields of employment; 82.7 percent express "dissatisfaction but have no options" when they face employment discrimination and therefore choose to forgo their legal rights for the sake of securing their employment.

Since 2004, National People's Congress representative Zhou Hongyu and other experts have been promoting an anti-employment discrimination law that would establish an equal opportunity employment committee. The proposal details the conditions, procedures, and burdens of proof involved in petitioning the committee, according to a March 7 Legal Daily report. Nevertheless, as argued in a March 9 Xinhua article, a law cannot solve a problem without tackling its root causes―which in this case includes corporations' lack of a sense of social responsibility. Companies "are not willing to hire disabled or disadvantaged workers for fear of hurting their economic performance,... especially under grim employment conditions," according to the March 7 report. In addition, some companies "find various excuses to create multiple barriers, legitimizing 'abnormal means' such as recruiting people solely based on their appearances or hukou status," says the same report. Ultimately, "discrimination is a social phenomenon" that requires people to change their traditional thinking, stated Zhou in the March 3 People's Daily interview.

For more information about employment discrimination, see Section II-Worker Rights-Employment Promotion Law and Section II-Public Health in the CECC 2008 Annual Report. See also a previous CECC analysis on ethnicity-based employment discrimination: Governments in Xinjiang Continue to Sponsor, Sanction Job Recruitment That Discriminates Against Ethnic Minorities.