Amendment of Law on Work Safety approved in China 
On June 11, 2021, the 2021 amendment of “Law of the People’s Republic of China on Work Safety” (hereinafter abbreviated as “2021 amendment”) was promulgated. And the amendment will come into force on September 1, 2021.
Law of work safety was enacted in 2002, and this the third amendment. In the 2021 amendment, there are 42 places have been amended, which account for one third of the original articles. Part of the amendments are related to the responsibilities of the administrative institutions, the important contents for company are as follows.
Strengthening the work safety responsibilities of the company
In the 2021 amendment, since it stipulates to implement the “Industry safety, business safety, production and operation safety” in work safety, the supervisory responsibilities of related departments are clarified, and the work safety responsibility system also gets further improved.
Furthermore, to achieve the purpose of this amendment–“To further strengthen the main responsibilities of work safety in production and business departments”, the safety responsibility system of all employees is added in the 2021 amendment. In addition, the 2021 amendment also adds provisions such as establishing a hierarchical management and control mechanism for safety risk, and promptly reporting the investigation and management status of the potential serious accidents to the related departments. Also, provisions of obligations of joining insurance for production and business department are added.
In addition, in order to solve the problem of the responsibilities of work safety supervision are unclear in some new industries and fields, and prevent the supervision “dead angle” of different administrative institutions, it stipulates that the local governments over prefectural level decide the supervision and management institutions according to the relation of the business.
Strict punishment for illegal acts
The punishment for illegal acts are strengthened in the 2021 amendment. The penalty amount has been raised, especially for the serious accident, the maximum penalty amount may reach up to 100 million yuan (about 1600 million yen, the exchange rate as of June 11, 2021). The penalty provisions are also become stricter, if a violation is found, a correction will be ordered, and if the correction is refused, the production and operation will be ordered to stop and a fine will be calculated on a daily base continuously from the date of receiving the correction order. Such punishment also has a purpose of protecting the enterprises which comply with the law.
At the briefing session of the amendment held by the Ministry of Emergency Management on June 11, 2021, the person in charge of the ministry stated that, to promote the implement of the 2021 amendment, ministry will collaborate with the work safety experts to solve the problems faced by companies, and realize a good interaction between the enforcement of the law and the development of companies.
For the original text of the 2021 amendment, please refer to the following URL (in simplified Chinese).
http://www.chemicalsafety.org.cn/detail.php?oneid=40532
