Labor Contract Law approval postponed

A proposed Labor Contract Law will not be approved at the annual National People's Congress in March, although it will likely be passed this year, the South China Morning Post reported. A law professor at Shanghai Normal University, Liu Cheng, who helped draft the law, said it will be reviewed in April or June, adding that it would "definitely" be approved in 2007. The proposed law has already been read twice; most bills are given three readings before approval. Companies have criticized the planned law because it is expected to reduce their hiring flexibility, although labor activists say it promotes workers' basic legal rights.