An Empirical Study Of The Indefinite-term Labor Contract System

In labor laws of various countries,labor contracts can be divided into labor contracts with definite duration and labor contracts with indefinite duration according to whether the termination is determined or not.For simplicity,we name the two most important labor contracts as fixed-term labor contracts and open-term labor contracts.In the planning-economy-era of China,the policy of jobs-assignment by order makes it impossible for employers and workers to exercise their own right to make choices on their own will.In order to change this situation,Chinese Labor Law enacted in1995 established labor contract law system,and divided labor contracts into three types,i.e.,fixed-term employment contracts,open-term employment contracts,and the employment contracts ending upon the completion of a certain task.However,this Law did not provide detailed application rules for these types of labor contracts,especially the rules for fixed-term and open-term employment contracts.In reality,companies generally sign fixed-term contracts with workers out of consideration of their own interests,which also causes the problem of short-term labor contracts.In order to protect the rights and interests of workers more effectively,China enacted the Labor Contract Law in 2007.Compared with the 1995 “Labor Law”,the biggest difference is that,the Labor Contract Law 2007 revised and improved the specific applicable rules for fixed-term and open-term employment contracts.In particular,2007 Law stipulated the conditions for the transformation of fix-term to open-term labor contracts.However,this rule is still too vague and difficult to operate,which has caused difficulties in application due to a large number of legal interpretation divergences in judicial practice.This article firstly analyses the implication and value objectives of the fix-term labor contract legal system;secondly analyzes typical Chinese cases in this area and tries to find the flaws and loopholes in the legislation;lastly tries to explore the right positioning of the system,and how to perfect the substantial provisions and dispute settlement systems based on the research of foreign laws and practice.In detail,the content of this article is as following:The first chapter mainly summarizes the basic theories of the open-term employment contract system,including the emergence,development,basic concepts,legal characteristics,and the legislation value,etc.The second chapter mainly makes an empirical study on the rules for the formation of open-term labor contracts.This part first analyzes the provisions on the conditions for the conclusion of open-term labor contracts,and then analyzes relevant typical cases to summarize the problems in the legislation and practice.The third chapter mainly discusses the legal liabilities arising out of open-term labor contracts.On the basis of the previous illustration,this part analyzes the different legal responsibilities arising out of the open-term labor contracts at the stage of conclusion and termination,and combines relevant typical cases to summarize the problems existing in our country’s legislation and judicial practice.The fourth chapter mainly studies and discusses the improvement of our country’s open-term labor contract system and dispute resolution mechanism.On the basis of the problems raised in the previous article,this part discusses the legal positioning of the open-end labor contracts,the perfection of the legislation,as well as the dispute resolution mechanism,and tries to put forward the resolution methods.