Government and Policy

Employment regulation stirs up hornet's nest

By Li Yingqing and Guo Anfei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-15 11:37

KUNMING - A draft regulation in the capital city of Southwest China's Yunnan province that denies employment to people without residence permits has triggered huge controversy across the nation for discriminating against migrant workers.

The city's Draft Regulation on Residence Permits, published by the local public security bureau to seek public feedback, stipulates that local employers should not hire migrant workers without residency permits.

Employers who violate the rules can be fined between 50 and 5,000 yuan ($7 to $700), according to the regulation.

Details of the regulation have irked the public because of the contradictory message it sends.

Applicants for a residency permit must first obtain a temporary residency permit, live in Kunming for over one year and hold a steady job. Yet jobs are not permitted for those without a permanent residency permit, hence the contradiction.

The rule does not apply to foreigners and residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

The rule has been criticized for discriminating against migrant workers, who appear to be the target of the regulation.

The current number of migrants in Kunming, with a population of 6.24 million, has reached 1.1 million.

Liu Aihua, a migrant worker from neighboring Sichuan province who works in a small restaurant in Kunming, said she is worried about the new rule as she does not have a residency permit, since she came to the city less than a year ago.

"I fear I might be considered a vagrant and then forced to leave the city," she said.

Dai Zhen, a Kunming-based lawyer, said the draft rule is against China's Constitution.

"The draft regulation deprives non-locals, without a residency permit the right to work in Kunming," he said. "That is discrimination because any citizen with an ID card can work in Kunming in line with the national laws," Dai added.

Residency permits were introduced in the city in 1984 to replace temporary resident permits.

Migrants with residency permits for more than one year are entitled to benefits, including free vaccinations for their children, free schooling as well as a discount on bus travel, according to the draft regulation.

An official with the Kunming public security bureau, who declined to be named, said since most migrants only live in Kunming for a short time, the regulation is actually unfair to the city's permanent residents.

"I applaud the draft rule, because many migrants have flooded into Kunming in recent years, making it difficult to solve traffic, healthcare and education problems," said a local resident surnamed Zhang.

Some local residents, however, said worker numbers in the city would drop if the draft regulation is passed.

"Limiting the number of migrants with these permits will hurt the development of Kunming," said one local official who refused to be named.

"There are a lot of migrants in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen and they have been contributing a lot to promoting economic development," he said.

China Daily