Expats in China urged to have their contracts checked before signing

How important is it to have your Chinese employment contract reviewed by a lawyer for content and legality?

Expats seeking a job or already working for a Chinese company are being urged to have their contracts checked by a lawyer specialising in contractual issues. As China becomes an even more popular destination for expat professionals, tech specialists and English language teachers, dodgy contracts giving rights to the employer and none to the employees are beginning to surface. Many newly-arrived expats are signing contracts with no real idea as to what they’re getting into and are paying the price further down the line.

Having a new contract checked by an experienced lawyer before signing it is even more important if the job is one with a substantial salary and benefits and is being offered by a Chinese domestic company. It doesn’t matter whether the paperwork is a formal contract or one of the ‘form’ or template contracts used regularly for employing expats, and legal checks should be done on renewals as well as original contracts. By not knowing exactly what you’re signing up for, you lose the chance to renegotiate or change aspects of the contract before signing.The window of time between being offered a contract and signing up is when negotiations can take place as regards the favourability of wages, work conditions, etc to the employee. Once that window closes, you’re stuck with what it says with no opportunity to change terms and conditions.

According to one experienced Chinese lawyer, many contracts are vastly unfair to expat professionals, but there’s nothing she can do once the contract has been signed except to contact the employer and attempt to smooth the transition to the new job. Occasionally, asking the employer whether a lawyer verified the contents of the contract as legal before it was signed can get results in that an attorney who viewed the contract but failed to note its possibly illegal content might be encouraged to pay the employee in restitution, but it doesn’t make the job any easier for the unfortunate expat. Also importantly, don’t be pressured into signing up by the presence of an arbitrary deadline. It’s better to lose a job which might become unbearable as there’s always another position waiting to be filled.