Shanghai High People’s Court Issues New Internal Guidelines

Following a seminar held between local judges in October 2014, the highest level local court, the Shanghai High People's Court (the "Court") issued internal guidelines summarising its discussions and detailing the current prevailing opinions in relation to popular labour disputes. The following update highlights the key issues from those guidelines.

Employment relationship

It is not uncommon for domestic private companies to handle social insurance contributions for some non-employee individuals; this can be for a variety of reasons. The Court has held that handling social insurance formalities, or making contributions, do not necessarily lead to the constitution of an employment relationship. Instead it is one of the factors which a court will take into consideration. Other factors which the Court will assess include: