China to remove temps from law-enforcing duties

Governmental departments and other law enforcement agencies will “clean-up” their staff to remove contract workers and temporary workers from law-enforcement tasks, a senior official from the State Council said.

Increasing disputes over land acquisition, house demolition and environmental protection activities are often a result of poor law enforcement, Yuan Shuhong, deputy head of the Legislative Affairs Office of China’s Cabinet, was quoted by the Nanjing Daily as saying.

To better legal procedures, all relevant departments will be required to remove contract workers and temporary workers from law-enforcing tasks, Yuan wrote in an article that outlines reforms raised earlier this month by the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Under China’s unique bianzhi system, under which wages and welfare are paid from public funds, governmental departments, State-run enterprises and public institutes have limited quotas to hire workers. Therefore, hiring contract workers or temporary workers who lack legal experience and training has become common practice.