Carrefour's Re-signing Of Labor Contract Causes Dispute

According to local media reports, Carrefour China has asked its over 40,000 employees across China, except those who have already signed a non-fixed term labor contract with the company, to re-sign a two-year labor contract with it before December 28, 2007 regardless of the length of the employees' service in the company or whether their current labor contract with Carrefour will expire by then.

Though leaders of Carrefour China say the company's behavior has nothing to do with the upcoming Labor Contract Law, local media report the company is trying to seize the last opportunity to sign a fixed-term contract with its employees before signing a non-fixed one with them. Carrefour's behavior will not only cause dissatisfaction among the employees and decrease their trust in the company, but also affect the company's normal operations.

Chen Bo, media manager of Carrefour, says the reason Carrefour decided to re-sign the labor contract with the employees is that some clauses of the former contract do not conform to China's new Labor Contract Law, but Chen refused to disclose further details on the clauses.