Notice on Further Regulating Recruitment to Promote Equal Employment of Women

Promulgation Date: 2019-2-18
Title: Notice on Further Regulating Recruitment to Promote Equal Employment of Women
Document Number:
Expiration date: 
Promulgating Entities: Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice, et al.
Source of text: http://www.mohrss.gov.cn/SYrlzyhshbzb/jiuye/zcwj/201902/t20190221_310707.html

To the department (bureau) of human resources and social security, department of education (education commission), and that of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, department of justice (bureau), health commission (Health and Family Planning Commission), State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Medical Insurance Bureau, federation of labor unions, Women's Federation, and people's courts of each province, autonomous region, and directly governed municipalities, as well as of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:

The equality of men and women is a basic state policy of our nation. Promoting equal employment for women is conducive to promoting broader and more thorough participation of women in social and economic activities, and to increasing social production and economic vitality. The Party and government place great importance on this, and the Labor Law, Employment Promotion Law, Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests, and other laws provide assurance for women's right to equal employment and clearly provide that sex discrimination must not be carried out in employment. Currently, the overall situation of women's employment in our nation is quite good; the labor participation rate is among the to wold's first, but women's employment still faces a few challenges; especially the persistence of sex discrimination in recruitment despite prohibtio, which has a detrimental impact on women's employment. Notice on the following matters is hereby given so as to further regulate conduct in recruitment and to promote equal employment for women.

I. Understand the overall work requirements With Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as guidance, each area is to tho thoroughly implement the basic state policy of equality between men and women, making resolution of sex-based employment discrimination an important part of promoting higher quality and fuller employment for women, combining critical targets and big picture planning, combining active promotion and punishment in accordance with law, and also making regulation of recruitment a key point, strengthening oversight and law enforcement, completing work mechanisms, increasing the force of efforts, and truly safeguarding the women's rights to equal employment.

II. Lawfully prohibit sex-based employment discrimination in every stage of recruitment. In making recruitment plans and publishing recruitment information, and recruiting employee, employers and human resources establishments must not limit by sex (excepting where the state has prohibited female workers and other such situations) or have preference for a sex, must not limit womens seeking employment on the basis of sex or refuse to hire women, must not inquire into women's marital or parentage status, must not make pregnancy testing a part of employment health assessments, must not have restrictions on pregnancy as a condition of employment, and must not have different higher standards for hiring women. State-owned enterprises and public institutions, public human resources service establishments, and the human resources service establishments to which each department belongs should lead the way in complying with the law, and resolutely prohibit sex-based employment discrimination.

III. Strengthen Oversight of the Human Resources Market. Oversee human resources service establishments and establish and complete mechanisms for reviewing published information and handling complaints, truly perform obligations to review published recruitment information, promptly correcting publications of recruitment information that contain sex-based discriminatory content, and ensuring the veracity, lawfulness, and validity of published information. Where employers or human resource service establishments publish recruitment information with sex-based discriminatory content, lawfully order corrections; where corrections are refused, give a fine of between 10,000 and 50,000 RMB; where the circumstances are serious for a human resources service establishment, cancel their human resources service permits. Enter situations such as administrative punishments for publication of recruit information with sex-based discriminatory content into human resources market creditworthiness records, and carry out punishments for untrustworthiness in accordance with law.

IV. Establish Joint Mechanisms for Admonishment Meetings Based on the reports and complaints, carry out united meetings with the employers suspected of sex-based employment discrimination, using methods such as talking, dialogue, and letters of inquiry to investigate and mediate, urging the sex-based discriminatory conduct to be corrected within a set time,and promptly resolving the conflict between the laborer and the employer. Based on the reports and complaints, carry out united meetings with the employers suspected of sex-based employment discrimination, using methods such as talking, dialogue, and letters of inquiry to investigate and mediate, urging the sex-based discriminatory conduct to be corrected within a set time,and promptly resolving the conflict between the laborer and the employer. Where the units to met with refuse the meeting or refuse to make corrections following the meetings, it is to be investigated and handled in accordance with law, and exposed to the public through the media.

V. Establish Mechansisms for Judicial Remedies Lawfully accept lawsuits related to women's sex-based employment discrimination, establish an equal employ rights dispute conflict cause of action. Actively provide legal consultation and other legal assistance to the women who have suffered sex-based employment discrimination, and provide legal aid to eligible women. Actively provide judicial aid to eligible women who suffered sex-based employment discrimination.

VI. Support Women's Employment. Strengthen employment services with an emphasis on female college students, providing individualized occupational guidance and targeted job introductions to women, and establishing a correct view of employment and career choice. Organize women's partication in appropriate training programs, encourage employment units to carry out job skills trainings for female workers returning after childbirth, so they can adjust to the demands of the workplace as quickly as possible. Promote the development of childcare services for children three years-old and younger and strengthen after-school services for elementary and middle schools, to reduce the burden of raising families and assist women in balancing work and family. Improve implementation of the birth insurance system, truly giving play its role as a safeguard. Strengthen oversight and law enforcement, lawfully punishing violations of women's protective labor rights during pregnancy, birth, and breast-feeding. Where labor personnel disputes occur between women and employers, and they apply for arbitration, it should be handled promptly in accordance with law.

VII. Carry out Publicity and Guidance. Resolutely implement the basic state policy of equality between men and women, strengthen awareness of the equality of men and women, and gradually extinguish sex-based stereotypes. Increase publicity on laws, regulations, and policies against sex-based employment discrimination and safeguarding women's rights to equal employment; guide the entire society to respect and love women, guide employers to know and obey the law and lawfully recruit women to participate in all kinds of work, and guide women to lawfully and reasonably protect their own rights and interests. Establish a set of examples of employers that safeguard women's rights to equal employment, and recommend those with outstanding performance to participate in the National Advanced Collective for Safeguarding the Rights and Interests of Women and Children, the National Advance Collective of Women's Position Construction, and other such innovative evaluation activities. Create an environmnet conducive to women's employment, helping women be strong and self-reliant, giving full play to their own strengths, displaying their intelligence and wisdom in each field, and embodying self-worth.

VIII. Strengthen Organizational Leadership Each region and each department should emphasize promoting women's equal employment, preforming their duties as well as possible, coordinating and cooperating, to combining efforts for comprehensive policy implementation. Departments of Human Resources and Social Security should work with relevant departments, to strengthen oversight and law enforcement for recruitment, guiding lawful and reasonable recruit, and strengthening employment services and employment skills training for women. The Ministry of Education is to advance after-school services for elementary and middle schools. The Ministry of Justice is to provide judicial remedies and legal aid. The Health Departments should promote the development of infant and child care services. Departments for the supervision of state-owned assets should strengthen guidance and oversight of recruiting by all state-owned enterprises. Medical insurance departments should improve implementation of the birth insurance system. Labor union organizations should actively promote enterprises' hiring in accordance with laws and regulations. The Women's Federations should organize relevant awards and commendations with relevant parties, strengthening publicity and guidance, and increasing concern and care for women. The people's courts should actively publish model cases and guiding cases, giving full play to their role in standardization and guidance. Departments of Human Resources and Social Security. labor union organizations, and Women's Federation organizations and other departments are to conduct meetings with departmnets suspected of sex-based employment discrimination.

Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice, health Commission, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission

Medical Insurance Bureau, All China Federation of Labor Unions, National Women's Federation, Supreme People's Court

February 18, 2019