Ｔｈｅ Ｐｒｏｇｒｅｓｓ， Ｃｈａｌｌｅｎｇｅｓ ａｎｄ Ｃｏｕｎｔｅｒｍｅａｓｕｒｅｓ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ Ｌａｂｏｒ Ｃｏｎｔｒａｃｔ Ｌａｗ

Formulation background

In recent years， as the process of industrialization， urbanization， and economic restructuring speeded up， the enterprises' system reform deepens， the diversification of business forms and la-bor relations increased， there have been some new situations and problems of the labor relations. The legitimate rights and interests of laborers have been violated every now and then in some regions，and even very serious in particular in- dustries. This is shown in the following areas: (1) Labor disputes arise when thelegitimate rights and interests of labor- ers are not effectively protected， and the rate of labor contract signing is low. In 2005， The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress found in the enforcement inspection of labor law that the rate of the labor contract signed in the small and medium-sized enterprises and non-public ownership enterprises was less than 20%. (2) The term of the labor contracts are shortened， and the labor relations are instable. The law enforce-ment inspection of the NPC Standing Committee shows that more than 60% of the labor contracts signed between employing units and laborers are short-term contracts， with many signed once in a year and some even a few times in oneyear. (3) The employing units are mak- ing use of its strength in labor relations to violate the legitimate rights and interests of the laborers. The oversupply of labor is the situation that exists at present and will exist for the long term. In this context， the above-mentioned violation would always happen and this has seriously affected the harmonious and stability of the labor relations. The statistics of the original Department of Labor and Social Secu-rity show that during 1995 to 2006， the number of labor dispute cases increased 13.5% in these I2 years; collective labor disputes are also in substantial growth， increasing by 5.4 times.