Introduction
On 1 December 2014 amendments to the Work Safety Law of the
People's Republic of China (Work Safety Law)
came into effect. The amendments, which have been mooted since the
beginning of the calendar year, are considered a response by the
Chinese government to a series of high profile disasters including
the Qingdao Oil Pipeline explosion of late 2013, which claimed the
lives of 62 people and injured many more.
The tougher, amended Work Safety Law is just one part of a
concerted push by the Central Government to improve work health and
safety.
The amendments focus almost entirely on toughening laws against
companies and "persons in charge", in respect of work
health and safety responsibilities. As a general rule, fines
against companies and their persons in charge have significantly
increased. However, it is worth noting that there are no changes of
substance to the obligations of employees themselves as they relate
to work health and safety.
