China: Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Beijing Issued Model Texts of Documents Related to Flexible Retirement
Authors: Carol Zhu and Leon Li
Recently, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of PRC, in coordination with relevant departments, has carried out special rectification of the human resources market in various regions, focusing on investigating and penalizing a batch of cases of false recruitment, discrimination in employment and illegal labour dispatch and other violations of the law. On October 18th, 2024, this batch of typical cases was publicized.
In one of the cases, a manpower agency in Shanghai published discriminatory recruitment information, specifically stating that “the number of employees from a certain place has been filled” and “employees from a certain place are not needed.” This restricted the employment of workers with a particular household registration, violating their rights to equal employment. In response to this illegal act of publishing discriminatory job advertisements, the local human resources and social security department in Shanghai ordered the manpower agency to rectify the situation within a specified period, remove the relevant job advertisements, and imposed an administrative penalty of CNY 5,000.
According to the Employment Services and Employment Management Regulations and Regulations for Human Resource Service Agencies, both human resource service agencies and employers are prohibited from including discriminatory content in their job advertisements. The local human resources and social security department has the authority to require human resource service agencies that violate these regulations to rectify their actions and may even impose fines.
On 10 January 2025, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Beijing Municipal issued the Model Text for Notice of Flexible Early Retirement(the “Notice”) and the Model Text for Agreement on Flexible Delayed Retirement(the “Agreement”), which are provided for enterprises and employees to refer to and use voluntarily. This initiative aims to prevent and reduce labour disputes from the root, optimise the business environment of Beijing, and support the smooth and orderly implementation of the flexible retirement policy.
In the Notice, the conditions that employees need to meet to choose early retirement are elaborated, including but not limited to years of service, age restrictions, and the minimum contribution period for pension. Additionally, the model text also specifies the process for applying for early retirement, the required documents, and the time limits for each step, ensuring transparency and efficiency throughout the process.
In the Agreement, the focus is on the rights and obligations of both employees and employers regarding delayed retirement, including the specific duration of delayed retirement, salary and benefits, and welfare guarantees. This approach respects the individual choices of employees while also meeting the enterprise’s needs for talent stability.
Key Action Points
Since 1 January 2025, the flexible retirement system has officially come into effect. These two model texts provide employers and employees with framework suggestions for arrangements, clearly addressing the issues that should be considered. However, these two model texts are not mandatory. When it comes to the individualised choices of employees and employers, the texts leave sufficient room for the agreements of the parties involved. Employers should carefully refine the texts in accordance with their specific circumstances.
