China’s Law of Work Safety was published by the National People’s Congress in June 2002 and went into force in November the same year. In 2014, the Law was revised and took effect from December 2014. The revision required State Council and other ministries to draw up related supporting documents for better implementation of the Law. After that however, no legal documents supporting implementation or offering further guidance were released for almost two years. Authorities encountered many problems when drawing up related regulations. One of the biggest problems was assigning accountability to each division and department as many production activities involve management by more than one department. Also a lot of work safety problems have emerged with many newly developed industries, so the authorities had to consult with experts from various areas for feedback and advice.
As a result, legislative work has been delayed numerous times. On Dec 24th 2016 at a NPC conference, Mr. Huanning Yang, the director of State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) was questioned by a committee member on the likely release date of the finalized law. Two weeks after the conference, on Jan 6th 2017, SAWS published a draft of the Regulation on the Implementation of Work Safety Law for public feedback. The consultation period will end on Feb 6th 2017.
The draft specified and emphasized the responsibilities of both production units and the government. Enterprises and other production units are required to establish a work safety risk control system and report major risk sources to competent authorities. Manufacturers and storage sites of hazardous articles and other production units should purchase work safety insurance if there is a high risk of work safety accidents. State Council and local governments are required to set up special committees on work safety and the responsibilities of each division must be specified. Local governments are given more supervisory power and penalties for enterprises that violate provisions have been increased
The administrative and financial penalties are strengthened in the draft. Civil penalties include fines of up to 200 thousand RMB and requirements to halt production. Severe violators will be subject to criminal prosecution. A violation recording system will be established. Enterprises listed in this black list will suffer financial penalties when they apply for new construction approval or bid for other projects.
*ChemLinked welcome enterprises to talk with us about their opinions and concerns about the draft implementation regulation. We would like to pass the feedback to SAWS as a bridge between the industry and the authorities.
