Some employers at recent job fairs in Harbin surprised female applicants by demanding that they agree to not get pregnant for a certain number of years if they wanted to be hired, reports Xinhua.

At one such job fair, a construction company seeking an accountant made it clear at the interviews that the applicants should not become pregnant for five years if hired.

The company's personnel chief even asked applicants to sign a contract to make the agreement legally binding.

At another job fair last week, a Beijing company's Harbin branch required secretarial candidates to promise that they would not have a baby for eight years.

A lawyer said any agreement forbidding women from becoming pregnant during their employment had no legal validity.

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