Study On The Legal Regulation Of The Part-time Work

As one form of non-standardized employment, part-time work has rapidly developed inChina while also encountering some problems in this process. Legal regulation of part-timework is largely absent due to lack of adequate labor legislation. This paper seeks awhole-scale study upon the legal regulation of part-time work from the non-standardizedfeatures including multiple labor relations, mitigated dependency and flexible employment onone hand and the legal aim of labor law to protect the legitimate interests of the two parties inlabor relations on the other hand to give more emphasis on the protection of the legitimateinterest of workers so as to balance the rights and obligations of both parties.The dissertation is divided into three parts in addition to the introduction and conclusion.The first part of this paper is a general analysis of part-time work. By defining part-timework and analyzing its features, this paper crystallizes the legal nature of part-time work asone form of non-standardized labor relation, while at the same time clarifies the relationsbetween full-time work, flexible employment, informal employment, temporary work andpart-time work.The second part is about the main issues facing part-time work in China. Firstly,legislation idea is misplaced in guiding law-making of part-time work with traditional andstandardized employment ideology. This was due to a lack of understanding and emphasistoward part-time work in China resulting in oversight of its features despite the role thatpart-time work plays in employment promotion. Secondly, in reality, the basic rights ofpart-time workers in enjoying social insurance, termination of contracts and righteousworking hours are seriously harmed because legal regulations in respect of working hours,right to rest and social insurance are not capable in granting protection. Lastly, legalregulations concerning part-time work are not reasonable enough as the provisions incontract-making and termination are too flexible while the subject of part-time work lackflexibility which is not in conformity with the rapid growth of part-time work.The third part is to propose recommendations to improve legal regulation of part-timework. First, it is necessary to establish the legislation idea of combining hardness withsoftness. Hardness means to limit part of the rights of employer through the intervention ofpublic power to ensure the preservation of fundamental rights of workers and basic fairness.Softness aims the non-standardized features of part-time work. By making relevant changes in the ways that legal regulation works to adapt to the developments of part-time work so as togive full play of it in resource allocation in labor market. Second, to improve and supplementbenchmarks in terms of working hour, vacation, the minimum wage and social insurance ofpart-time work to guarantee a low-standard and widely-covered protection of part-timeworkers. Lastly, to expand the adjustment range and regulation content and to place certainlimits on the formation and termination of labor contracts to ensure the formation of a flexibleand secure employment mode of part-time work.