In a recent email to a client, one or our China employment
lawyers provided an overview of China's employment law system.
This post expands on that overview, offering insights and examples
to help foreign employers understand the unique challenges and
requirements of hiring in China.
As you will see, the Chinese employment system is based on Asian
socialist and Northern European models. China's employment law
system is quite different from the U.S system. The main difference
is that the U.S. is an employment at will system, which means you
can terminate employees at any time for pretty much any reason.
China's system is the opposite. The Chinese employment law
system is a contract employment system. This means all employees
must be engaged pursuant to a written employment contract and
during the term of that contract, it is difficult to terminate an
employee.
