Beijing approves more stringent law on water pollution
The mainland's top legislature has approved a revised law to prevent water pollution to make industrial polluters more accountable.
Analysts said the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law was likely to prompt concerns among company executives over rising production costs.
The law, passed yesterday by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, raised penalties for the illegal discharge of pollutants.
Wang Canfa, an environmental expert at the China University of Political Science and Law, said the new legislation highlighted the responsibilities of local governments and heads of polluting enterprises in cutting pollution.
Bosses of operations directly responsible for polluting lakes and rivers would be fined up to half of their previous year's income, state media said, quoting the legislation.
Tsinghua University professor Li Dun said it was a step towards rectifying low production costs, which were achieved at the expense of the environment and millions of poorly paid migrant workers.
However, Professor Li said the changes were likely to unsettle foreign-invested enterprises.
The Labour Contract Law and other initiatives to improve workers' welfare have already raised fears over rising operating costs.
The labour law, which took effect on January 1, requires companies to offer staff open-ended contracts if they have worked for them for more than 10 years. The law also gives trade unions the right to negotiate better deals such as paid holidays and pay rises on behalf of workers.
It represents a sea change within the central government towards heeding public grievances.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Security also ordered local governments to raise the minimum wage in December following rapid rises in food prices since the second half of last year.
Inflation on the mainland hit an 11-year high of 7.1 per cent last month, with food prices soaring 18.2 per cent year on year.
Guangdong announced last week that it would raise minimum wages from April 1 by up to 17.8 per cent. Minimum monthly wages in the province would then range from 530 yuan to 860 yuan.
Other areas, such as Shanghai and Jiangsu province, will raise minimum wages this year, according to mainland media.
Wang Lina, a research fellow from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Economics, said those new policies were well intentioned in terms of providing more safeguards for workers, 'but there is still a large labour surplus'.
Professor Wang said policymakers should not side with workers unrealistically or blindly, but must balance the interests of workers and employers.
Specifically, she said wage issues should be left largely to workers and employers to settle while the government maintained basic social security for workers.
'If pressures such as more expensive land, pay rises and tightened social security rules keep piling up on employers, they might be forced to quit as there would be too much uncertainty for their businesses,' Professor Wang said.
