• The Notice on Further Regulating Recruitment Activities to Promote Equal Employment for Women has been jointly released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Education and other seven departments. The Notice clearly regulates the repeatedly banned phenomenon of the gender discrimination in the recruitment process.
  
• The Administrative Measures for Electronic Business Licenses (Trial) has been released by the State Administration for Market Regulation, which clarifies the legal effect of the electronic business license.
  
• The Opinions on Comprehensively Promotion and Implementation of the Combination of Maternity Insurance and Basic Medical Insurance has been released by the State Council General Office. It aims to improve management efficiency and reduce operation costs.
  
• The Emergency Regulations on Production Safety Accident was reviewed and approved by the State Council and will come into force on 1st April 2019. It clarifies the duties and division of labor for all aspects of safety production accidents.
  
• The Notice on Requirements for Subsequent Related Work for Cancellation of Administrative Licensing on Construction Projects Environmental Impact Assessment Qualification (Interim) has been released by Ministry of Ecology and Environment on 21st January 2019, which stipulates the qualification requirement of the environmental impact assessment staff.
  
• The Regulation of Tianjin on Ecology and Environment Protection has been released by the People’s Congress of Tianjin and has come into force on 1st March 2019. The Regulation explicitly prohibits the new construction and expanded construction of high pollution project.
  
• The Catalogue of Project Excluded from Construction Project Environment Impact Assessment Management in Shanghai (2019 Edition) has been released by Shanghai Ecology and Environment Bureau and has come into force on 22nd February 2019. More than one fourth of construction projects in Shanghai no longer need to be subject to Environment Impact Assessment.
  
• Updated Minimum Wage Standard of Shaanxi Province.

1. Labour
   < Notice on Further Regulating Recruitment Activities to Promote Equal Employment for Women >
   < Administrative Measures for Electronic Business Licenses (Trial) >
   < Opinion on Comprehensively Promotion and Implementation of the Combination of Maternity Insurance and Basic Medical Insurance >
2. Health and Safety
   < Emergency Regulations on Production Safety Accident >
3. Environment
   < Notice on Requirements for Subsequent Related Work for Cancellation of Administrative Licensing on Construction Project Environmental Impact Assessment Qualification (Interim) >
   < Regulation of Tianjin on Ecology and Environment Protection >
   < Catalogue of Project Excluded from Construction Project Environment Impact Assessment Management in Shanghai (2019 Edition)>
4. Minimum Wage Standard Update - Shaanxi Province
   

Labour

1. < Notice on Further Regulating Recruitment Activities to Promote Equal Employment for Women> (2019-2-18)
The Notice on Further Regulating Recruitment Activities to Promote Equal Employment for Women (Hereinafter referred to as the Notice) was jointly released on 18th February 2019 by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Education and other seven departments.
The Notice clearly regulates the repeatedly banned phenomenon of the gender discrimination in the recruitment process in the process of formulating recruitment plans, publishing recruitment information, and recruiting personnel:

• Gender restriction (except for the scope of female workers’ taboo labor prescribed by the state) or priority is not allowed;
  
• Women should not be restricted to seek employment or refused to employment because of gender;
  
• Women shall not be asked about marriage and childbirth status;
  
• Pregnancy test shall not be used as entry examination item;
  
• Restriction of maternity shall not be used as a condition of employment;
  
• Shall not differentiate the recruitment standards for women.

If the employer issues recruitment information contained gender-discriminatory content, it shall be ordered to correct or even impose a fine according to law, and the punishment case shall be included in integrity record of the human resources market, and dishonesty disciplinary punishment shall be implemented according to law. In addition, the government departments will conduct joint interviews with employers suspected of gender discrimination in employment base on the reported complaints. If the interviewed employer refuses to accept the interview or refuses to make corrections after the interview, it will be investigated and punished according to law and exposed to the public through media.

2. < Administrative Measures for Electronic Business Licenses (Trial) > (2018-12-17)
The Administrative Measures for Electronic Business Licenses (Trial) (Hereinafter referred to as the Measures) was released on 17th December 2018 by the State Administration for Market Regulation. The Measures stipulates that the electronic business license has the same legal effect as the paper business license, and it is the legal evidence that the market entity obtains the subject qualification.

3. < Opinion on Comprehensively Promotion and Implementation of the Combination of Maternity Insurance and Basic Medical Insurance > (2019-3-25)
The Opinion on Comprehensively Promotion and Implementation of the Combination of Maternity Insurance and Basic Medical Insurance (Hereinafter referred to as the Opinion) has been released by the State Council General Office on 25th March 2019. Main requirements of the Opinion are as below:

• Employees shall participate in maternity insurance and basic medical insurance simultaneously;
  
• Maternity insurance fund should be merged into employee basic medical insurance fund, collection of both two insurance funds should be unified;
  
• The collection and management of funds and relevant information service, as well as the medical service management should be unified;
  
• Make sure maternity insurance benefits for employees remain changeless;
  
• Relevant authorities should raise risk prevention awareness, reasonably guide expectations, improve maternity insurance monitoring indicators, and establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism based on maternity insurance and expenditure needs, and achieve the sustainable development of system;
  
• The implementation for combination of two insurances should be completed by the end of 2019.

Health and Safety

1. < Emergency Regulations on Production Safety Accident > (2019-4-1)
The Emergency Regulations on Production Safety Accident (Hereinafter referred to as the Regulations) has been adopted at the 33rd ｅｘｅｃutive meeting of the State Council on 5th December 2018 and will come into force on 1st April 2019.

The Regulations consists of 5 chapters and 35 articles, provides norms and requirements on contents of emergency response system of production safety accident, emergency response preparedness, onsite emergency rescue and relevant legal liability etc. The main contents of the Regulations are as follows:

• The Regulations defines emergency rescue measures for production and business units. After a production safety accident occurs, the production and operation entity shall immediately launch the emergency rescue plan and take corresponding emergency rescue measures.
  
• The Regulations defines the emergency work system of the unified lead of the people’s government at or above the county level, the division of labor of the industry supervision department, and the guidance and coordination of the comprehensive supervision department.
  
• The Regulations specifies the government’s emergency rescue measures. After receiving the report on production safety accidents, the local people’s government and relevant departments shall report the accidents according to the regulations, launch the corresponding emergency rescue plans of production safety accidents, and take corresponding emergency rescue measures according to the provisions of the emergency rescue plan.
  
• The Regulations specifies the requirements of formulation and exercise of the emergency rescue plan. Defines the requirements of construction and guarantee of the emergency rescue team and the establishment of emergency rescue equipment and material reserves, emergency duty system, etc.
  
• Sixteen (16) emergency rescue measures are specified in detail, and the system of accident scene command and chief command is innovated.

Environment

1. < Notice on Requirements for Subsequent Related Work for Cancellation of Administrative Licensing on Construction Project Environmental Impact Assessment Qualification (Interim)> (2019-1-21)
The Notice on Requirements for Subsequent Related Work for Cancellation of Administrative Licensing on Construction Projects Environmental Impact Assessment Qualification (Interim) (hereinafter referred to as the Notice) was released by Ministry of Ecology and Environment on 21st January 2019 and has come into force upon promulgation. The Key contents of the Notice are as below:

• Since the date of publication of this Notice, implementation of Measures of Construction Projects Environmental Impact Assessment Qualification Management (Environmental Protection Department Decree No. 36th) shall be stopped. The Notice on the Publication of the Supportive Documents for the Qualification Management Measures for Construction Projects Environmental Impact Assessment (Ministry of Environmental Protection Decree No. 67th of 2015) shall be abolished.
  
• The Environmental Impact Statement (assessment form) should be temporarily prepared by full-time staff who obtained the qualification of environmental impact assessment engineer in the organization unit and taken the role of compilation host and key compilation team member.

2. < Regulation of Tianjin on Ecology and Environment Protection> (2019-3-1)
The Regulation of Tianjin on Ecology and Environment Protection (hereinafter referred to as the Regulation) was released at the second session of the seventeenth People’s Congress of Tianjin on 18th January 2019 and has come into force on 1st March 2019.

• The Regulation provides that Tianjin shall implement more stringent ecology and environment protection standard and management measures. For items already specified in the national environmental quality standards and pollution discharge standards, Tianjin may formulate more stringent local standards than national standards.
• The Regulation provides for the promotion of a green development approach in Tianjin. New construction and expanded construction of high pollution project are prohibited; strictly implement the state regulation on the elimination of products, techniques and equipment that seriously pollute the ecological environment, promote the exit of backward production capacity; encourage and support enterprises to implement green transformation, improve the efficiency of resource and energy utilization.
• The Regulation provides that enterprises and public institutions and other business operators shall take the emergency action, such as restricting production, suspending production etc. in accordance with the requirements of the government’s emergency response plan during the heavy pollution weather emergency response period.

3. < Catalogue of Project Excluded from Construction Project Environment Impact Assessment Management in Shanghai (2019 Edition) > (2019-2-22)
The Catalogue of Project Excluded from Construction Project Environment Impact Assessment Management in Shanghai (2019 Edition), (hereinafter referred to as the Catalogue of Project (2019)) was released by Shanghai Ecology and Environment Bureau on 21st February 2019, and has come into force on 22nd February 2019, validity until 21st February 2024. The Catalogue of Project Excluded from Construction Project Environment Impact Assessment Management in Shanghai (2015) has been abolished since the enforcement of Catalogue of Project (2019). Main contents in the Catalogue of Project (2019) are summarized as below:

• More than one fourth of construction projects in Shanghai no longer need to be subject to Environment Impact Assessment, this exemption mainly involves four (4) types of construction projects including manufacturing industry project, social service project, infrastructure project and environmental protection project. Most of the projects included in this exemption are simply process that only have slight environmental impact and controllable risk, examples as below:
  1. Equipment manufacturing project only involving assembly and testing, and operating in existing building and its sewer has been connected to municipal sewage piping.
  2. Instant food manufacturing, nutritious food and healthcare food manufacturing projects that only involving simply split charging, and operating in existing building and its sewer has been connected to municipal sewage piping.
  3. Garment manufacturing only involving cutting, sewing and ironing, and operating in existing building and its sewer has been connected to municipal sewage piping.
  4. Clean energy boiler and its replacement; overhaul and maintenance of industrial enterprise.
  5. Emergency diesel generator and emergency diesel fire pump are used by enterprise.
  6. Environmental pollution prevention and control facility that not involving the main construction. (The projects of desulfurization, denitration and dust removal in power plant are excluded; The projects of hazardous waste storage, use and disposal are excluded).
• Meanwhile, Shanghai Ecology and Environment bureau emphasizes that projects listed in Catalogue of Project (2019) do not need to be subject to environmental impact assessment, but the responsibility of the construction unit for environmental protection shall not be exempted.

China Minimum Wage Standard Update - March 2019

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