Public-run job centers in Beijing should withdraw all for-profit programs and provide free services for the city's laborers, the Beijing Municipal Labor & Social Security Bureau announced in its latest notice on December 4.

In response to China's new Employment Promotion Law, which went into effect in January 1, 2008, the bureau will launch a campaign early this year to further crack down on Beijing job centers that charge for services, the Beijing News reported.

Aside from the 20 yuan monthly fee for keeping laborers' personal archives, public job centers should not charge for services such as publicizing job and vocational training information, or registering unemployed citizens, an official with the social security bureau said.

Moreover, job centers should not charge to citizens who start their own businesses or laid-off workers who are in their forties or fifties, the official said.

In recent years, many public-run job centers have instituted services charging employees and employers for their daily maintenance. But starting this year, job centers' operating budgets will be included into the government budget, the notice said.

Under the new directive, laborers in the city also have the right to chose where to deposit their personal archives. Public job centers should not refuse to accept them under any circumstances.

(CRI January 7, 2008)