China Law Update

• Author: Jiefeng Lu
• Pages: 293-317

CHINA LAW UPDATE (RECOVERED) (DO NOT DELETE) 2012/8/29 9:36 AM

2012] CHINA LAW UPDATE 293

CHINA LAW UPDATE

I. LAWS AND REGULATIONS

A. Law on Prevention and Control of Occupational Diseases (2011

Amendment)1

The Amendment to the Law on Prevention and Control of

Occupational Diseases has caused fifty odd modifications to the old

version. This revisions ranges from clarifying the responsibilities

of relevant government authorities, attaching the importance to the

control from the source, solving the problem workers encounters in

various aspects, rescuing and giving medical treatment to those

unable to prove their relationship with employing units. The

Amendment features four remarkable improvements.2

1. Expansion of the Scope of “Employment Unit”

The first improvement is that occupational disease is defined with

a slight difference from its old version 3. Article 2 of the

Amendment refers “occupational diseases” to the diseases contracted

by the employees of an enterprise, a public institution, an individual

economic organization, or other employer for their exposures to toxic

or harmful factors such as dust and radioactive substances in

occupational activities”. Compared with the former version, this

version adds the expression of “or other employer” which expands

the coverage of employers, thus in fact including all types of possible

employment units.

2. Simplification of Application Procedures

Another obvious change of the Amendment is that it simplifies

the application procedures of identification and verification of

occupational injury. There have been long-existed problems in

mainland China about diagnosing and identifying occupational

1 Zhiye Bing Fangzhi Fa (职业病防治法) [Law on Prevention and Control of Occupational

Diseases (2011 Amendment)] (promulgated by the Standing Comm., Nat’l People's Cong., Dec. 31,

2011, effective Dec. 31, 2011) 2012 STANDING COMM., NAT’L PEOPLE’S CONG. GAZ. 10.

2 See Ma Xuesong (马雪松), Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Zhiye Bing Fangzhi Fa (《中华人

民共和国职业病防治法》解读) [Interpretation on Law on the Prevention and Control of Occupational

Diseases (2011 Amendment)], Dalian Ribao (大连日报) [ Dalian Daily], Feb. 21, 2012, at A13,

available at http://szb.dlxww.com/dlrb/html/2012-02/21/content_615719.htm?div=0.

3 Zhiye Bing Fangzhi Fa (职业病防治法) [Law on Prevention and Control of Occupational

Disease] (promulgated by the Standing Comm. Nat’l People’s Cong., Oct. 27, 2001, effective May 1,

2002) ST. COUNCIL GAZ., Dec. 10, 2001, at 10.

CHINA LAW UPDATE (RECOVERED) (DO NOT DELETE) 2012/8/29 9:36 AM

294 TSINGHUA CHINA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 4:291

diseases such as blanks in standards regarding identification of

working injuries, difficulties in claiming for compensations, etc.

This Amendment specifically aims to perfect the diagnostic process

and mechanism with inclination towards the benefits and protection

of workers. This legislative intent can be inferred from the duties

of the work units highlighted in Article 45, which allows an

employee to seek occupational disease diagnosis at a medical and

health institution legally providing occupational disease diagnosis at

the place where the employer is located, at the place of the

employee’s registered permanent residence, or at the place of the

employee’s habitual residence.4

Similarly, employees will also be able to find easier ways to

exercise their rights to claim for the compensation for occupational

injury because the newly-added Article 50 authorizes them to appeal

to the local labor and personnel dispute arbitration committee for

arbitration, to deal with conflicts in the process of occupational

disease diagnosis or identification which concerns the employment

relationship, type of work, post, or working hours when the

employee’s occupational history and history of exposures to

occupational disease hazard factors are validated.5

3. Inclusion of Important Types of Occupational Disease

The Amendment also adds some typical occupational diseases of

frequent occurrence. Since Chinese economy is roaring at a fast

pace, some diseases caused or induced in the new technology

industries come into existence and there remains much blank in laws.

Previous reported cases6 reveal that the control and precaution over

these diseases, together with the compensation are far from

satisfactory. For instance, Zhang Haichao Incident7 exposed by

the media cruelly but truly shows the great pains that coal miners

suffered from dust lungs and the startling occupational diseases

resulted from chemical poisoning. Fortunately, this Amendment

4 Zhiye Bing Fangzhi Fa (职业病防治法) [Law on Prevention and Control of Occupational

Diseases (2011 Amendment)] (promulgated by the Standing Comm., Nat’l People's Cong., Dec. 31,

2011, effective Dec. 31, 2011) 2012 STANDING COMM., NAT’L PEOPLE’S CONG. GAZ. 10, art. 45.

5 Id. art. 50.

6 See Zhiye Bing Wang ( 职业病网) [OCCUPATIONAL-DISEASE NET],

http://www.zybw.com/Category_109/Index.aspx (last visited on May 22, 2012). See also Pingguo

Zhongguo Gongyingshang Gongren Zhongdu (苹果中国供应商工人中毒) [Employers of Apple Corp.

vs. Apple Corp], Huanqiu Wang (环球网) [Huanqiu Net] http://www.huanqiu.com/zhuanti/tech/apple

(last visited on May 30, 2012).

7 Zhang Haichao Kaixiong Yanfei Shijian (张海超开胸验肺事件) [ Zhang Haichao Incident],

Wikipedia,

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BC%A0%E6%B5%B7%E8%B6%85%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6

(last visited on Apr. 24, 2012).