Recently, nine departments, including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security ("MOHRSS"), have jointly issued the Circular on Further Regulating Recruitment Practices to Promote Female Employment (the "Circular").
The Circular gives a further detailed description of particular forms of gender discrimination in recruitment activities, clearly requiring that in preparing the recruitment plans or in other recruitment activities, all types of employers and human resource service agencies shall neither impose limits on gender or have gender preference, nor refer to the gender as an excuse to restrict opportunities available to women to seek employment or refuse to employ women. Also, the Circular calls for establishing the joint interview mechanism, under which authorities will hold a joint interview to talk with those employers on suspicion of gender discrimination during the recruitment process, according to whistleblower reports and complaints they have received; employers will be investigated and punished if they refuse to attend such talk or to make corrections after the talk, and their illegal practices will be exposed among the general public through the media. Moreover, the Circular stresses that, efforts shall be made to improve training services concerning women's employment, promote the development of care services for infants under the age of three, step up after-school services for primary and middle schools, optimize and put in place the maternity insurance system, and thus create a good environment and favorable conditions for women's employment.