High Temperature Allowance (hereafter referred to as HTA) is the allowance that is to be paid to employees who engage in outdoor work or high temperature indoor work during summer as per mandatory law regulations. The following points are reminders relating to HTA regulations.

Some employers, especially Chinese foreign invested companies, pay their staff comparably higher salary. They may agree with staff orally that the salary paid includes overtime hours without any written provision. This oral agreement may cause very high risk that, in the case of a labour arbitration, an arbitrator may request that the employer pay additional overtime salary based on the agreed salary if the employee denies the oral agreement.

Many employers or even lawyers engaging in labour law in a labor arbitration hearing are often unsure how, by what procedure, and by what applied rule of burden of proof will an arbitrator use to conduct an investigation into claims of overtime salary. This procedure only became clear to me after I became a labour arbitrator in Shenzhen.

If death is not the result from work related injury then article 14 and 15 in Regulation on Work-Related Injury Insurance shall not apply. People who die from non-work related injury are not entitled to damages set out in regulation on work rated injury insurances but other laws and provisions. In general, family dependents of the people who die of non-work related injury are entitled to 9 to 15 months’ salary as damages. The salary shall be per capital wage of the local employees in that city in the previous year but not the salary of the deceased. Please refer to the website for details.

Clause 47 of Labor Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Law has changed the past legal proceeding in employment litigation. The clause provides that: In respect of the following labor disputes, the arbitral award and the statement of award shall have legal effect from the date when the judgement is made unless otherwise stated hereof

What’s the relationship between working permit period and the termination of the labor contract for a foreign employee in China? According to Chinese relevant laws and regulations, if a foreigner wants to be a legal employee in China and be protected by the Chinese Labor Law and Chinese Labor Contract Law, he or she needs two things first: one is the Working Permit for Foreigners, the other is the Residence Permit for Foreigners. After the foreigner gets them, he can sign a labor contract with the employer and become a legal employee in China.

The 2015 Laobr Law Annual Meeting of Guang Dong Lawyer’s Association was held in Airland Hotel in Da Meisha Shenzhen. More than 300 lawyers, judges and arbitrators met together, sharing their research on subject of labor law issues, by speech and discussion.

Many bosses feel that it is a headache to terminate the employment of an employee because they think that Chinese labor law is too strict on the employer and any termination would result in huge compensation. It is true that there were many employers who lost their cases and paid compensation when I handled some cases as labor arbitrator.