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Provisions on Prohibition of Child
Labour (Adopted at the 63rd Executive Meeting of the State
Council on September 18, 2002, promulgated by Decree No. 364 of the State
Council of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 2002, and effective
as of December 1, 2002) Article 1 These Provisions are formulated in
accordance with the Constitution, the Labour Law and the Law on the
Protection
of Minors for the purposes of protecting the physical and mental health of
minors, promoting the implementation of the
system for compulsory education and safeguarding the lawful rights and
interests of minors. Article 2 No State organs, social organizations,
enterprises, institutions, private non-enterprise units, or individual
industrial and commercial businesses (hereinafter referred to as employing
units) may recruit and hire minors under the age
of 16 (the term "hiring minors under the age of 16" is hereinafter referred
uniformly to as "use of child labour").
All units and individuals are prohibited from providing job placement
service to minors under the age of 16.
Minors under the age of 16 are prohibited from starting business and
engaging in individual business operation
activities. Article 3The parents or guardians of minors under the age of
16 shall protect their physical and mental health, safeguard
their rights to compulsory education and shall not permit them to be
illegally hired by employing units.
Where the parents or guardians of minors under the age of 16 permit them
to be illegally hired by employing units, the
people's government of the township (town), the urban subdistrict office,
the villagers' committee or the residents'
committee where they are located shall criticize and educate the parents or
guardians. Article 4Employing units, when recruiting employees, shall
verify the identification card of the recruited; no minors
under the age of 16 shall be recruited. The employing units shall properly
preserve the documents for recruitment
registration and verification. Article 5Labour and social security
administrative
departments of the people's governments at or above the county
level shall be responsible for the supervision over and
inspection of the enforcement of these Provisions.
Administrative departments for public security, industrial
and commercial administration, education and public health,
etc. of the people's governments at or above the county level
shall supervise and inspect the enforcement of these
Provisions within their jurisdiction and support the
supervision and inspection conducted by the labour and social
security administrative departments.
Trade unions, Youth Leagues, Women's Federations and other
social organizations shall protect the lawful rights and
interests of minors in accordance with law.
Any unit or individual shall, where discovering child
labour, have the right to report the case to the labour and
social security administrative department of the people's
government at or above the county level.
Article 6In the case of use of child labour by an employing
unit, the labour and social security administrative department
shall punish it by the standard of fining 5,000 yuan for each
of children employed per month; In the case of use of child
labour in workplaces where toxic substances are used, a
heavier punishment shall be imposed in consistence with the
fine range stipulated in the Regulations on Labour Protection
in Workplaces Where Toxic Substances Are Used, or by the
standard of fining 5,000 yuan for each of children employed
per month. The labour and social security administrative
department shall order the employing unit to send the children
back to their original places of residence and hand them to
their parents or other guardians within a prescribed period,
and all the costs of transportation and accommodations so
entailed shall be borne by the employing unit.
Where the employing unit, when ordered to make corrections
by the labour and social security administrative department in
accordance with the preceding paragraph, fails to send the
child labourers back to their parents or other guardians
within the prescribed period, the labour and social security
administrative department shall punish it by the standard of
fining 10,000 yuan for each of children employed per month
from the date of ordering corrections to be made within the
prescribed period, and the department for industrial and
commercial administration shall revoke their business licenses
or, the civil affairs department shall cancel the
non-enterprise unit registration; if the employing unit is a
State organ or public institution, the relevant units shall
impose administrative or disciplinary sanctions of demotion or
discharging from the post on the persons in charge directly
responsible and other persons directly responsible.
Article 7Where a unit or an individual provides job
placement service to minors under the age of 16, the labour
and social security administrative department shall punish it
by the standard of fining 5,000 yuan for each of the minors
placed; where a job placement service agency provides job
placement service to minors under the age of 16, the labour
and social security administrative department shall also
revoke its job placement license.
Article 8Any employing unit that fails to preserve, or
forges the documents for recruitment registration according to
the provisions of Article 4 of these Provisions shall be fined
10,000 yuan by the labour and social security administrative
department.
Article 9Any unit that has no business license or whose
business license is revoked according to law or any unit that
has not been registered or submitted itself for the record
according to law employs a child or provides job placement
services to a child shall be fined twice of the standards
stipulated in Article 6, 7 or 8 of these Provisions, and that
illegal unit shall be banned by the relevant competent
administrative department.
Article 10Where a child employed is sick or injured, the
employing unit shall bring him to the medical institution for
treatment and bear all the medical and living costs during the
period of treatment.
Where a child employed is disabled or dead, the department
for industrial and commercial administration shall revoke the
business license of the employing unit or, the civil affairs
department shall cancel the non-enterprise unit registration;
if the employing unit is a State organ or an institution, the
relevant unit shall impose administrative or disciplinary
sanctions of demotion or discharging from the post on the
persons in charge directly responsible and other persons
directly responsible; the employing unit shall also pay lump
sum compensation to the lineal relatives of the disabled or
dead child labourer, and the amount of compensation shall be
fixed in accordance with the provisions on work-related injury
insurance of the State.
Article 11Whoever abducts a child for use as a labourer,
forces a child to work, employs a child to be engaged in work
high above the ground or down in the pit, work involving
radioactive, highly poisonous, inflammable or explosive
substances or work of the 4th degree labour intensity as
stipulated by the State, or employs a child under the age of
14, or causes death or severe injury to a child employed,
shall be investigated for criminal liability in accordance
with the provisions of the criminal law on the crime of
abducting and trafficking in children, the crime of forced
labour or other crimes.
Article 12The staff members of the government administrative
departments who commit one of the following acts shall be
given administrative sanctions of recording a serious demerit
or demotion according to law, shall be discharged from the
post or dismissed according to law if the circumstances are
serious, and shall be investigated for criminal liability in
accordance with the provisions of the criminal law on the
crime of abuse of power, the crime of neglect of duty or other
crimes if a crime is constituted:
(1) the staff members of the labour and social security
administrative departments and other relevant departments fail
to stop, rectify and investigate and punish those who employ
children, when they discover that children are employed in the
course of supervision and inspection of the prohibition of
child labour;
(2) the people's policemen of the public security organs
issue identification cards or record false date of birth in
the identification cards in violation of relevant provisions;
(3) the staff members of the departments for industrial and
commercial administration issue a business license for
engaging in individual business when discovering that the
applicant is a minor under the age of 16.
Article 13Artistic or sports units may, upon agreement by
their parents or guardians, recruit minors under the age of 16
as professional artists or sportsmen. The employing units
shall protect the physical and mental health of the minors
recruited under the age of 16 and guarantee their rights to
compulsory education. The measures for recruitment of
professional artists and sportsmen under the age of 16 by the
artistic or sports units shall be formulated by the labour and
social security administrative department of the State Council
jointly with the culture administrative department and the
physical culture and sports administrative department of the
State Council.
The work conducted by minors under the age of 16 in
educational practical and vocational training program
organized by schools, other educational institutions or
vocational training institutions according to the relevant
provisions of the State, which does not affect their safety
and physical and mental health, shall not fall into the
category of child labour. Article 14These Provisions shall be effective
as of December
1, 2002. The Provisions on Prohibition of Child Labour
promulgated by the State Council on April 15, 1991 shall be
repealed simultaneously. |
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