Chinese employers could find themselves in court from next year if they discriminate against job seekers on the grounds of sex, age, religion, race or physical disability. Job applicants will be entitled to sue employers for discrimination from Jan. 1 under the new national Employment Promotion Law.

Adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, on Thursday, the law is intended promote employment and prohibit job discrimination.

The law was drawn up to help create opportunities for more than 13 million new job seekers entering the market each year, particularly for laid-off workers, university graduates, ex-servicemen and migrant workers in urban areas.

With nine chapters and 69 articles, the law requires governments to coordinate employment policies in urban and rural areas to expand employment and provide equal opportunities.

It bans discrimination against job seekers based on their ethnicity, race, gender, religious belief, age, or physical disability.

The law says governments at all levels must create a climate for fair employment and root out discrimination against job seekers.

Job seekers can sue employers who practice discrimination, the law says.

It requires governments above county level to make expansion of employment a key task and implement policies to support the task.

The state will increase opportunities through various means, including the development of labor-intensive and service industries, medium-sized and small companies, the non-public sector and international trade.

The state will implement financial policies favorable to employment promotion and expand channels of fund-raising for small and medium-sized companies.

The law says the state will encourage financial institutions to improve services and enhance credit support for small and medium-sized companies.

The state will support those who start their own businesses by providing small loans.

The law stipulates that government-run employment service agencies must provide free services to the labor force and are prohibited from commercial operations.

The law says staff members of the government's labor and social security departments who are found to have committed abuse of power, dereliction of duty or cheating will be punished according to the law.

Intermediary employment agencies not approved and registered by the labor and social security authorities and industrial and commercial authorities will be closed down and fined 10,000 yuan (US$1,315) to 50,000 yuan, according to the law.

The law has a special chapter on boosting professional training for the labor force to meet market demand, requiring governments above the county level to support vocational schools, other professional training organizations and employers in providing pre-employment training, on-the-job training and reemployment training.

Enterprises must have required funding for education of employees and open vocational training courses for employees.

Employers who failed to set up employment education funds or misuse them will be ordered to correct their wrongdoings and be punished according to law.

By the end of 2005, around 760 million Chinese were in the work force and the unemployment rate was under 4.3 percent. During the 10th Five-Year Development Plan period (2000-2005), 42 million people in urban areas and 40 million migrant workers found jobs.

According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the number of registered urban unemployed reached 8.38 million, a rate of 4.1 percent, by the end of June, down 0.1 percentage point from June last year.

The law was submitted on Friday to the 29th session of the Standing Committee of the NPC for a third reading, after the first review in February and the second in June 2007.

(Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2007)