Recently, the Department of Policies and Regulations under the State Administration of Work Safety ("SAWS") has issued the Work Safety Law of the People's Republic of China (Comparison Draft for Proposed Revisions to Certain Articles) (the "Comparison Draft") for public comments before July 23, 2017.
The Comparison Draft clearly sets forth that "the person in charge of a production or business operation entity shall be the first person responsible for such entity's work safety"; the original Article 8 is complemented with provisions, one of which reads "improve the safe input guarantee system, clarify duties of all relevant departments in work safety, and strengthen the building of a team for work safety law enforcement. Meantime, the Comparison Draft adds a new article after the original Article 36, relating to certain matters that require production and business operation entities to establish the safety risk assessment system; and the provision stating that "production and business operation entities in the field of high-risk industries, such as mine, hazardous chemicals, fireworks and crackers, transportation, building construction, explosive materials for civilian uses, metal smelting and fishing production, shall buy work safety liability insurance, is added to the original Article 48. Moreover, the Comparison Draft includes amendments in other aspects.