{"id":1133,"date":"2024-01-11T10:07:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T02:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.royalaw.com\/en\/23-we-are-a-representative-office-of-a-foreign-company-can-we-hire-employees-directly-in-china\/"},"modified":"2024-01-11T10:07:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T02:07:29","slug":"23-we-are-a-representative-office-of-a-foreign-company-can-we-hire-employees-directly-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.royalaw.com\/en\/23-we-are-a-representative-office-of-a-foreign-company-can-we-hire-employees-directly-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"23.We are a representative office of a foreign company. Can we hire employees directly in China?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Answer: The representative office of a foreign company must employ employees through labor dispatch, and may not directly sign employment contracts with their employees. Although the Employment Contract Law provides for labor dispatch with mandatory requirements of temporary, substitutive, auxiliary roles and no more than 10% of dispatched personnel in host employers, the Interim Provisions on Labor Dispatch allows for an exceptional exemption for representative offices of foreign companies.1<\/a><\/sup>Article 25 of the Interim Provisions on Labor Dispatch stipulates that the use of dispatched workers by representative offices of foreign enterprises and representative offices of foreign financial institutions in China, as well as the use of international ocean-going seafarers by seafarer employers in the form of labor dispatch, shall not be restricted by temporary, auxiliary, and substitutive roles and the proportion of dispatched workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the representative office of a foreign company directly employs Chinese employees without labor dispatch, it may be ordered to make corrections and be subject to administrative penalties. For example, a representative office of a foreign company in Beijing that violates this provision may be subject to an administrative penalty of RMB 10,000 to 30,000.2<\/a><\/sup>Article 11 of the Administrative Provisions of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality on the Employment of Chinese Employees by Resident Representative Offices of Foreign Enterprises, 1998.<\/span><\/p>\n

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This article is a part of our new book<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\r\n
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\u201cEmployment Law in China: A Practical Guide. A book about \u201cWhat should I do\u201d with case laws.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\r\n
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Stay tuned, and the book will soon be published as an electronic books!<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>