How GE's labour counsel copes with local authorities: interview
September 21, 2012 | BY
clpstaff &clp articles &Louise Jing, labour counsel for General Electric, talks to China Law & Practice about taking a different approach when it comes to national and provincial-level regulations and dealing with local authorities
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hat is the structure of GE's legal department? How do you interact with each other?
My role as labour counsel for GE China means I report directly to GE China's general counsel. Each GE business has its delegated general counsel in China. I support them in handling labour law related issues. We work together through China legal counsel.
What are some of biggest challenges when it comes to labour and employment issues in China and how do you deal with them?
One of the challenges is that many national labour regulations are too general, which gives local authorities the room to make their own interpretation. This leads to different results on the same labour issue in different regions. Like many other multinationals, GE has employees all over China. We want to apply a consistent policy to employees no matter where they are. However, due to the different local policies and practice, we have to adopt different approaches to employees even if they have the same job function, which creates more administrative work and labour risks. For instance, Shanghai local rules allow companies not to renew the second fixed- term labour contract when it expires, while Beijing does not.
The PRC Exit-entry Administration Law (中华人民共和国出境入境管理法) was passed in July and becomes effective in 2013. How do you anticipate this Law will affect GE? Is there anything you are doing to prepare for it?
GE has been aware of this legislation. By analysing the new Law, we found it combines several existing laws and regulations and further details the requests in terms of immigration procedures. Generally speaking, we do not expect this new Law will have a big impact on GE.
What is a typical day like for you working in GE's labour and employment practice?
I will spend a quarter of my time on strategic matters, such as legislation tracking, analysis, policy making and labour law training. I will spend another quarter of my time on certain projects, such as company liquidation, integration, mergers and acquisitions and unions. I also work as part of the internal labour consulting hotline to answer questions every day and support human resource management to solve individual labour disputes.
What other legislation developments have affected the labour and employment market in the past year? How have you responded to them?
The highlight of labour law legislation in the past year was the PRC Social Insurance Law (中华人民共和国社会保险法) and a series of implementing rules, including one related to foreign employees. We think the Social Insurance Law is a milestone and represents big progress for social insurance in China. GE China has implemented new policies and processes in compliance with the Law. GE also worked with several non-governmental organisations to provide input when the draft policy was released for public opinion.
What is your outlook for the forthcoming year? What legislation are you following closely? 
Internally, we will put more focus on strategic matters, especially human resource policy making and training. Externally, we will keep monitoring legislation trends and connect with counterparts in other companies. There are a couple of draft laws and regulations currently under review, like the Regulations on Administrating Special Working Hours, Amendments to the PRC Employment Contract Law (中华人民共和国劳动合同法) and Judicial Interpretation on the Applicable Law of Labour Dispute Case Trials. Drafts have been released for public comment recently for each piece of legislation and we expect they may be finalised and issued soon.
What are some of the qualities you look for when hiring external counsel?
External counsel must be experts in a specific area in a leading law firm. They should be very familiar with local laws and practice. It is preferred that they have experience in working with multinationals. External lawyers must also be practical and understand the business operation of the company. Last but not least, we will not use any external lawyer who has a record of improper payment or other misconducts.
Interviewed by David Tring
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