Laws of the Guangdong Province

Regulations of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone on the Appraisal of Vocational Skills

(Adopted at the Thirteenth Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Second Shenzhen Municipal People' s Congress on February 26, 1997, promulgated by Public Notice No. 41 of the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People' s Congress on February 26, 1997)

Chapter I General Provisions

       Article 1 In order to raise the level of vocational skills of laborers and standardize the appraisal of vocational skills, these regulations are hereby formulated in accordance with Labor Law of the People' s Republic of China and the other laws, regulations of the state and in the light of the practical conditions of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.

       Article 2 The appraisal of vocational skills referred to in these regulations shall mean the examination and confirmation of the technical levels of laborers and the qualifications of technicians, senior technicians according to the standards of vocational skills and the standards of technical levels.

       The technical levels shall be divided into the primary, intermediate, and advanced ones.

       Article 3 The appraisal of vocational skills shall follow the principle of objectivity, openness, fairness, standardization.

       Article 4 People' s governments at various levels shall take measures to encourage laborers to raise their levels of vocational skills.

       Article 5 The employing units shall cooperate with and support employees to participate in the appraisal of vocational skills.

       Article 6 The laborers who have passed the appraisal of vocational skills shall be granted the corresponding certificates of vocational qualifications by the administrative department of labor of the municipal people' s government (hereinafter referred to as the municipal department of labor).

       The employing units shall treat the laborers, who have obtained corresponding certificates of vocational qualifications, according to the principle of combination of employment with treatment.

Chapter II Administrative Organizations

       Article 7 The municipal department of labor shall conduct the comprehensive administration of the city-wide appraisal of vocational skills, and execute the following duties:

(1)   to be responsible for formulating the rules on the appraisal of vocational skills;

(2)   to train and examine the assessor-examinants, supervisor-examinants;

(3)   to make a plan to develop the institutions of appraisal of vocational skills (hereinafter referred to as the appraisal institutions);

(4)   to examine and approve the appraisal institutions jointly with the departments of the municipal people' s government in charge of the administration of the related trades.

The municipal department of labor may, according to the actual needs of the

Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, bring the occupations (types of work) not enumerated by the state in the list for the appraisal of vocational skills into the scope of the appraisal of vocational skills.

       Article 8 The municipal department of labor shall make arrangements to establish a committee of the appraisal of vocational skills (hereinafter referred to as the appraisal committee), the appraisal committee shall consist of the members from the municipal department of labor, labor union, trade associations, and other related departments. The appraisal committee shall be responsible for the coordination and supervision of the examinations, appraisal of vocational skills and the related procedural work, and may make suggestion to the municipal people' s government on major issues of the examination, appraisal of vocational skills.

       Article 9 The appraisal committee shall set up the subordinate groups of specialized technical experts of various occupations (types of work) to undertake the technical work assigned by the appraisal committee.

Chapter III Appraisal Organizations

       Article 10 The appraisal organizations shall be those conducting the examination of the vocational skills of laborers and rating the technical levels.

       Article 11 The appraisal organizations shall meet the following requirements:

(1)   to be the enterprises, institutions, and social organizations which are corporate bodies;

(2)   to have more than 10 members of the management who have the experience in the appraisal and no less than 5 among them as the full-time members of management;

(3)    to have the examination places which are appropriate to the occupations (types of work) and the levels to be appraised, and to meet the national standards in terms of instruments, equipments, test methods, etc.

Article 12 In order to apply to be an appraisal organization, a written application

shall be filed to the municipal department of labor, the municipal department of labor shall examine it jointly with the administrative departments of the municipal government in charge of the related trades, and make a written reply on whether to approve it within 30 days from the date of receiving the application.

       The municipal department of labor shall issue the licenses of the appraisal of vocational skills and the plates of the organization of the appraisal of vocational skills to the appraisal organizations which have been approved after the examination.

       Article 13 The appraisal organizations shall put the plates of the appraisal of vocational skills in the conspicuous place of their main offices, and engage in the appraisal activities within the scope defined by the licenses of the appraisal of vocational skills.

       The appraisal organizations shall neither rent out nor transfer the above-mentioned licenses and plates to others.

       Article 14 The appraisal organizations shall charge fees for appraisal according to the rules.

       Article 15 The municipal department of labor shall put a system of the annual inspection of the appraisal organizations into practice. If the instruments, equipments, test methods of an appraisal organization do not meet the stipulations of Article 11 of these regulations and its personnel of management no longer fit in with the needs of the appraisal of vocational skills they are making, the municipal department of labor may revoke its appraisal qualifications at the annual inspection.

       Article 16 The municipal department of labor shall regularly make public the names, addresses, appraisal scopes of the appraisal organizations.

Chapter IV Assessor-Examinants and Supervisor-Examinants

       Article 17 The assessor-examinants shall be the personnel who conduct the examinations of the vocational skills of the candidates and assess their qualifications.

       The assessor-examinants shall be ranked as Level 1 assessor-examinants and Level 2 assessor-examinants.

       Article 18 The assessor-examinants shall meet the following requirements:

(1)   Level 1 assessor-examinants should have the qualifications for senior technician or the titles for senior professional and technical personnel, Level 2 assessor-examinants should have the qualifications for technician or higher position, or the title for middle-level technical personnel;

(2)   to have the working experience of the corresponding occupation (type of work);

(3)   to be good at professional ethics.

Article 19 The persons who meet the requirements of Article 18 may apply for

the qualifications to be assessor-examinants on the recommendation of the units with which they are affiliated. The appraisal committee shall entrust a group of specialized technical experts with the examination of the qualifications of applicants, the municipal department of labor shall train those who are qualified and then issue the qualifications certificates of assessor-examinants of corresponding occupations (types of work).

       Article 20 Level 1 assessor-examinants may take part in the examinations and assessments of senior technicians, technicians and senior, middle, junior technical workers; Level 2 assessor-examinants may take part in the examinations and assessments of senior, middle, junior technical workers.

       Article 21 The supervisor-examinants shall be the personnel who supervise the examinations and assessments of vocational skills.

       The supervisor-examinants shall be appointed by the municipal department of labor from Level 1 assessor-examinants who have more than 2 years of the experience of the appraisal work.

Chapter V Requirements for the Application to Take the Examinations

       Article 22 The laborers whose occupation (type of work) needs a certificate to take up a post according to the state rules and the graduates (the students who have completed courses) of the vocational (technological) college and schools which are under the system of double certificates---a diploma and a certificate of vocational qualifications---shall apply for the appraisal of vocational skills.

       Other laborers may apply for the appraisal of vocational skills if they are willing to do so.

       Article 23 If anyone meets one of the following requirements, an application may be filed to take the examinations for junior workers:

(1)   to have worked for more than two consecutive years or for more than 4 accumulative years in the same occupation (type of work);

(2)   to have completed the courses of junior worker training.

Article 24 If anyone meets one of the following requirements, an application may

be filed to take the examinations for middle-level workers:

(1)   to have obtained for 3 years or more the certificate of junior-worker rank of the occupation (type of work) which is under the examinations currently applied for ;

(2)   to have obtained the certificate of the junior-worker rank of the occupation (type of work) which is under the examinations currently applied for, and completed the courses of the training for middle-level workers;

(3)   to be a graduate from a university, a college, or a secondary technical school and to work in the occupation (type of work) which corresponds to the specialty of the applicant' s learning.

Article 25 If anyone meets one of the following requirements, an application may

be filed to take the examinations for senior workers:

(1)   to have obtained for 4 years or more the certificate of the middle-level-worker rank of the occupation (type of work) which is under the examinations currently applied for;

(2)   to have obtained the certificate of the middle-level-worker rank of the occupation (type of work) which is under the examinations currently applied for, and completed the courses of the training for senior workers;

(3)   to be a graduate from a university or a college and to have obtained the certificate of the middle-level-worker rank of the occupation (type of work) which is under the examinations currently applied for.

Article 26 If anyone meets one of the following requirements, an application may

be filed to take the examinations for technicians:

(1)   to have obtained the certificate of the senior-worker rank and worked in the occupation (type of work) for consecutive 10 years or more or for accumulative 15 years or more;

(2)   to have won one of the first 10 places at the national skill competition of the first category, or one of the first 6 places at the national skill competition of the second category, or one of the first 6 places at the provincial skill competition, or one of the first 3 places of the Shenzhen municipal skill competition;

(3)   to have won the third-class award of technical innovation at the provincial level, Shenzhen municipal level or higher awards.

Article 27 The person who has the technician qualifications and has been

employed as a technician for more than 3 consecutive years or for more than 5 accumulative years may apply to take the examinations for senior technicians.

       Article 28 The person who indeed has special skills in technology and meets the requirements of the municipal department of labor for application to take the examinations ahead of the prescribed time or by bypassing one rank may apply for the appraisal of vocational skills ahead of the prescribed time or by bypassing one rank after the recommendation from the unit or the individual application has been approved by the municipal department of labor.

       If an occupation (type of work) has special requirements for age, the municipal government may formulate other requirements for applying to take the examinations.

Chapter VI Appraisal Procedure

       Article 29 The appraisal organizations shall report their annual appraisal plans to the municipal department of labor and make them public after approval.

       Article 30 Candidates shall follow the requirements for applying to take the examinations, bring the related certificates to the designated places to enter their names, accept the qualifications check, pay the appraisal fees, and obtain the examination permits.

       Article 31 An appraisal organization shall choose assessor examinants according to the number of candidates before each appraisal and form the assessment groups of occupations (types of work) according to the following principles:

(1)   the number of assessor-examinants of an assessment group shall not be less than 3;

(2)   when an assessment group is formed for the same occupation (type of work) each time, its assessor-examinants shall be rotated, the number of assessor-examinants to be rotated shall not be less than two thirds of the total number of the members of the assessment group; an assessor-examinant shall not take part in the work of the examination and appraisal more than twice consecutively at the same appraisal organization;

(3)   if a candidate has the relationship with an assessor-examinant such as that of close relatives, teacher and student, or the other relationship of interests, the assessor-examinant shall apply for withdrawing. The appraisal organization shall designate one member of the assessment group to be a chief assessor-examinant who is responsible for organizing, coordinating of the work of the assessment group.

Article 32 An appraisal organization shall form an assessment group 10 days

before the appraisal and report the list of assessor-examinants to the municipal department of labor for record.

       After receiving the list for record, the municipal department of labor shall determine the supervisor-examinant.

       Article 33 The examination questions for the appraisal of vocational skills shall be worked out and obtained according to the following procedure:

(1)   the examination questions shall be drawn by the municipal department of labor from the examination question banks of the state and the Guangdong Province; if there is still no examination question bank of the state and the Guangdong Province, the examination questions shall be drawn from the examination question bank established by the municipal department of labor;

(2)   the municipal department of labor shall print the examination questions and seal them;

(3)   an appraisal organization shall pick up the examinations questions at the municipal department of labor on the date of the appraisal.

Article 34 An appraisal organization shall complete the preparatory work such as

arrangements for examination rooms, equipment tests, and supply preparations, etc. before an appraisal begins.

       Article 35 The appraisal of vocational skills shall adopt the methods combining the examination of theoretical knowledge and the examination of operation skills. The appraisal of technicians, senior technicians shall have the oral examinations on professional knowledge.

       The theoretical examination papers shall be sealed on the spot at the end of the examination and submitted to the municipal department of labor on the same day, the municipal department of labor shall make arrangements for experts to do grading.

       The operational examination shall conducted through on-the-spot assessment and on-the-spot grading of the candidates by the assessment group, the chief assessor-examinant shall be responsible for integrating the grades and giving a comprehensive assessment.

       The appraisal organization shall report the grades of the operational examination to the municipal department of labor on the day of the examination.

       The supervisor-examinant shall conduct on-the-spot supervision over the process of the examinations and assessment and record it, and then report it to the municipal department of labor.

       Article 36 The municipal department of labor shall make public the grades of the examinations within 5 business days from the date of receiving the grades, and, according to the state rules, issue the vocational qualifications certificates to those who have successfully passed the examinations. The vocational qualifications certificates shall be stamped with the seal of the appraisal organization.

Chapter VII Legal Liabilities

       Article 37 In case of practicing the appraisal of vocational skills without the appraisal license or beyond the scope defined by the appraisal license, the municipal department of labor shall order stopping the appraisal, refunding the appraisal fees to candidates, declare the appraisal results invalid, warn the organizer and make it public, and impose a fine of two times of the total of the charged fees.

       In case of practicing the appraisal of vocational skills beyond the scope defined by the appraisal license, the municipal department of labor may suspend the license if the circumstances are serious.

       Article 38 In case of renting out or transferring the appraisal license and the appraisal organization plate to others, the municipal department of labor shall confiscate the illegal earnings and suspend the license, and impose a fine of two times of the total of the illegal earnings.

       Article 39 If assessor-examinants, supervisor-examinants practice favoritism and irregularities, and abuse power, the municipal department of labor shall revoke their qualifications for assessor-examinant, supervisor-examinant; if a crime is constituted, the judicial office shall investigate into the criminal responsibility according to law.

       Article 40 In case of increasing the items of charge, raising the rates of charge, the department of price shall order refunding the extra charge to candidates, and impose a fine according to the related rules; if the circumstances are serious, the municipal department of labor shall temporarily suspend or revoke the license.

       Article 41 In case of privately printing, selling the vocational qualifications certificates to make profits, the municipal department of labor shall confiscate the illegal earnings, and impose a fine of three times of the illegal earnings; if a crime is constituted, the judicial office shall investigate into the criminal responsibility according to law.

       Article 42 In case of resorting to deception, practicing favoritism and irregularities in the appraisal process, the municipal department of labor shall order correction and make a warning; if the circumstances are serious, the license may be temporarily suspended or revoked; if a staff member commits to a crime, the judicial office shall investigate into the criminal responsibility according to law.

       Article 43 Before making a decision on such administrative sanctions as suspending the license or imposing a large amount fine, etc., an administrative office shall notify the party concerned according to the rules that this person has the right to ask for hearing; if the party concerned asks for hearing, the administrative office shall make arrangements for hearing according to the related rules.

       Article 44 If anyone of the administrative staff of the department of labor and the related departments abuses power, neglects duties, practices favoritism and irregularities, the department which this person is affiliated with or the municipal people' s government shall impose an administrative sanction according to the related rules of the state; if a crime is constituted, the criminal responsibility shall be investigated into according to law.

       Article 45 If the party concerned has an objection to the administrative sanction imposed by an administrative office, an application for a review may be filed to the administrative review office of the municipal people' s government or a legal action may be directly taken at the people' s court within 15 days from the date of receiving the notice on the administrative sanction.

Chapter VIII Supplementary Provisions

       Article 46 If the residents of Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan region and foreigners apply for the appraisal of vocational skills within the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, it shall be deal with by referring to these regulations.