The General Office of the Ministry of Transport ("MOT") has recently issued the Guidelines on Work Safety Management for Central State-owned Enterprises in the Highway and Waterway Industries, with effect from January 1, 2019.
The Guidelines provide that, a centrally-administered state-owned enterprise (SOE) shall set up a body for work safety and staff this body with an appropriate number of qualified personnel, establish a responsibility system for the enterprise's work safety, and clearly specify duties of relevant positions. The principal in charge of an enterprise, acting as the primary person responsible for work safety, is required to perform seven duties, including "timely and truthfully reporting any work safety accident". In addition, the Guidelines require that, a central SOE shall establish and improve its various work safety management systems that are aligned with work safety related laws, regulations, standards, specifications and industry policies, requirements of relevant administrative departments of the government, and relevant international conventions and international rules, and supervise efforts of its functional departments and affiliated enterprises to put into practice such systems. Moreover, the Guidelines explicitly state that, a central SOE shall work out an annual inspection plan to carry out inspections into the work safety of its subordinate enterprises. Such inspections include, but are not limited to, work in seven aspects, such as "efforts in executing laws, regulations and bylaws concerning work safety".