China Staff articles from October 2005

China Staff archives from October 2005

China's lax tax? Effective 1 October 2005, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwanese residents working on the mainland and their employers will have to pay into China's social security scheme. However, with only vague guidelines on how to implement the employment regulations, employers and employees are uncertain how to get with the programme. Tess Lyons explores.(Social Security)
October 1, 2005... A set of new employment regulations handed down from the PRC Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MOLSS), effective 1 October 2005, has impacted Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau (THM) residents working in China. Issued on 14 June 2005, the...

Can the Labour Tribunal rule on overseas contracts? After much contention, the High Court of Hong Kong affirms the Labour Tribunal's jurisdiction on employment contracts performed wholly outside Hong Kong. Susan Leung of Hong Kong Polytechnic University reminds employers with overseas-posted employees in the Mainland China to take note of various statutory provisions.(Overseas Contracts)
October 1, 2005... The Labour Tribunal was set up in 1973 to provide a quick, inexpensive and informal means to resolve disputes between employers and employees. According to s.7 of the Labour Tribunal Ordinance and the Schedule to the Ordinance, the Tribunal...

Absenteeism: problem or symptom? Workplace absenteeism is detrimental to productivity and costly to businesses. How then can employers combat employee absence? Corinna Tey delves into the issue.(Staffing)
October 1, 2005... Absences occur for legitimate reasons--serious illness, deaths and family emergencies. But they also occur for minor aches and pains, sleepless nights, hangovers--and that desire, when the alarm goes off at 7.00am, to be somewhere other than...

Stock options and other in-kind employee incentive schemes: is the granting of stock options to employees a taxable event? Andy Chen and Jackie Jiang of Ernst & Young discuss applicable methods for calculating PRC Individual Income Tax ("IIT") payable on income derived from stock options and other incentive schemes.(Tax Matters)
October 1, 2005... Stock option schemes are one of the popular employee incentive plans adopted in Western countries. Many FIEs in China have adopted the stock option scheme from their overseas parent companies while some overseas listed domestic companies have...

To pay or not to pay? In April this year, the Court of Appeal confirmed that an employer is required to take account of contractual commission when calculating annual leave pay and statutory holiday pay. Susan Kendall of Baker & McKenzie warns that the effect of this ruling will be particularly onerous where an employee's remuneration is structured to have a low basic wage with a generous contractual commission element.(Legal Briefing)
October 1, 2005... In the case of Laing Agnes & Ors v Lisbeth Enterprises Ltd t/a Phillip Wain International, the Court of Appeal's ruling has significant implications for all employers whose employees are remunerated in whole or in part by way of contractual...

Where East meets West.(Creative Leadership)(Michael Jenkins)(Centre for Creative Leadership)(Interview)
October 1, 2005... China has the opportunity not only to develop its leaders, but to share with the world its effective leadership styles. Tess Lyons talks with Michael Jenkins, Managing Director for the Centre for Creative Leadership's Asia Operations to...

Is Chinese law applicable in an expatriate secondment? Graham Brown and Wei Xin of Jun Ze Jun Law Offices offer their take on offshore employee contracts.(Labour Law Forum)
October 1, 2005... Q: I am responsible for HR in our company. Our offshore head office has seconded an expatriate employee to work at our representative office based on the employment contract between them. Our representative office has never entered into any...

Minimum wage decision cannot be made with haste.(Hong Kong News)(Brief article)
October 1, 2005... Chief Executive Donald Tsang in his first policy address to Legislative Council cautioned that efforts going towards imposing a minimum wage should not adversely affect the territory's economic recovery. However, the government would continue...

Hong Kong extends individual visit scheme for Mainlanders.(Hong Kong News)(individual visit scheme )(Brief article)
October 1, 2005... Besides expanding the scope of RMB businesses in Hong Kong, the Individual Visit Scheme for Chinese mainland residents to visit Hong Kong will also be extended to more Chinese mainland cities on a step-by-step. All these are part of measures by...

New quota for education degrees, 10% cut in three years.(Hong Kong News)(Brief article)
October 1, 2005... The Hong Kong Economic Times reported that the dropping birth rate has adversely affected the demand for secondary school teachers. According to Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIE), the number of Bachelor of Education (Secondary Education)...

Jobless rate hits record low.(Hong Kong News)(Brief article)
October 1, 2005... The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has fallen to a four-year low of 5.5% in the July-September period, from 5.7% in June-August. The underemployment rate dipped 0.1% to 2.6%. Total employment grew by by 4,300 to an all-time high of...

440,000 lay-offs in Henan reemployed.(China News)(Brief article)
October 1, 2005... The reemployment work in central China's Henan Province has seen results. In the first three quarters this year, a total of 447,800 lay-offs were reemployed across the province, fulfilling the annual target by 133.27%, and 129,200 older people...

China proposes US$1.3 bln on reemployment in 2005.(China News)(Brief article)
October 1, 2005... The Chinese government has proposed to allocate RMB 10.9 billion (US$1.3 billion) on reemployment work this year, RMB 2.6 billion (US$313 million) more than 2004, said Premier Wen Jiabao in a government work report. People's Daily Online...

Labour law violators to be 'blacklisted'.(China News)(Brief article)
October 1, 2005... Guangdong will implement a special system to disclose those employers who violate labour laws starting in November 2005, sources with the provincial labour and social security authority said. "The move aims to better protect the rights of...

China's overall salary increase in 2005.(Data Page)(Statistical table)
October 1, 2005... China's overall salary increase in 2005 2nd Tier Cities Average Nanjing 12.0% Chongqing 11.4% Hangzhou 11.3% Chengdu 10.3% Suzhou 10.0% Dalian 9.5% Tianjin 9.2% Wuhan ...