Law of the People's Republic of China on Work Safety

(Adopted at the 28th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress on June 29, 2002; amended for the first time in line with the Decision on Amending Certain Laws adopted at the 10th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress on August 27, 2009; amended for the second time in accordance with the Decision on Amending the Law of the People's Republic of China on Work Safety adopted at the 10th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress on August 31, 2014; amended for the third time according to the Decision on Amending the Law of the People's Republic of China on Work Safety adopted at the 29th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress on June 10, 2021.)

Contents

Chapter I   General Provisions

Chapter II   Work Safety Guarantees from Production and Operation Entities

Chapter III   Rights and Obligations of Employees relating to Work Safety

Chapter IV   Work Safety Supervision and Administration

Chapter V   Accident Rescue, Investigation and Handling

Chapter VI   Legal Liability

Chapter VII   Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I

General Provisions

Article 1  This Law is enacted for enhancing work safety, preventing and minimizing accidents related to work safety, ensuring the safety of people's lives and property, and promoting economic and social development in a sound and sustainable manner.

Article 2  This Law is applicable to work safety in entities engaged in production and operation activities (hereinafter referred to as production and operation entities) within the territory of the People's Republic of China. Where there are provisions in other laws and administrative regulations on fire safety, road traffic safety, railway traffic safety, water traffic safety, civil aviation safety, nuclear and radiation safety, or special equipment safety, those provisions shall prevail.

Article 3  The leadership of the Communist Party of China must be upheld in ensuring work safety.

Efforts at work safety shall be oriented around people and reflect the principle of people first and life first, with top priority given to people's life safety. The philosophy of safe development shall be adhered to and the principles of safety first, prevention as the main target as well as comprehensive administration shall be followed to forestall and resolve major safety risks at the source.

The governmental departments in charge of certain industries must manage work safety in the industries for which they are responsible. Managers in enterprises responsible for certain businesses and production must manage work safety in their areas of responsibilities. The production and operation entities shall assume the primary responsibility in this regard, and the government shall fulfill the responsibility for regulation. A mechanism for work safety shall be established, in which the production and operation entities bare safety responsibility with participation by employees, regulation by the government, the self-discipline of industries, and supervision by the society.

Article 4  Production and operation entities shall abide by this Law and other laws and regulations concerning work safety, strengthen work safety management, establish and improve the responsibility system covering all the staff as well as work safety related rules and regulations, increase inputs, including funds, supplies, technologies and personnel into work safety management, improve conditions for safe work, strengthen standardization and informatization of work safety, establish a dual-prevention mechanism integrating tiered management and control of safety risks and identification and rectification of hazards, and refine risk forestalling and resolving measures, in a bid to improve capacity in this regard and ensure work safety.

Production and operation entities engaged in platform economy or other emerging industries and sectors shall, according to the characteristics of their industries and sectors, develop, improve and implement the responsibility system covering all the staff, strengthen education and training on work safety, and fulfill the work safety obligations provided by this Law and other laws and regulations.

Article 5  The principal person in charge of a production and operation entity is the primary person responsible for work safety of the entity and is in full charge of work safety of the entity. Any other person-in-charge shall take work safety related responsibilities within the scope of their duties.

Article 6  Employees of production and operation entities shall be entitled to secure guarantee of work safety in accordance with the law and shall fulfill corresponding obligations in work safety in accordance with the law.

Article 7  Trade unions shall supervise work safety in accordance with the law.

Trade unions of production and operation entities shall, in accordance with the law, organize employees to participate in the democratic management of and supervision over work safety of the entities and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the employees in work safety. Production and operation entities shall heed the opinions of the trade unions when formulating or revising relevant rules or regulations concerning work safety.

Article 8  The State Council and the local people's governments at or above the county level shall, in accordance with the national economic and social development plans, formulate and organize the implementation of the work safety plans. The work safety plans shall be aligned with spatial plans and other relevant plans.

The people's governments at all levels shall strengthen the construction of work safety infrastructure, build their regulatory capacity for work safety, and include the required funds in the budget at their corresponding level.

The people's governments at or above the county level shall organize relevant departments to develop and improve the work safety risk assessment and validation mechanism, conduct industrial planning and spatial layout designing according to the requirements for management and control of safety risks and implement a mechanism for joint prevention and control of major safety risks on production and operation entities that are close to each other in locations, industries and forms of businesses.

Article 9  The State Council and the local people's governments at or above the county level shall strengthen their leadership over work safety, establish and improve the coordination mechanism in work safety, support and supervise all the departments concerned in performing their duties in work safety regulation, and solve major problems exposed in the work safety supervision and administration through coordination in a timely manner.

The people's governments of townships and towns, neighborhood offices, development zones, industrial parks, ports, scenery resorts, etc. shall designate organs for work safety supervision and administration and confirm their duties, strengthen forces regarding work safety regulation, oversee and inspect the work safety situations of the production and operation entities in their respective administrative regions or their jurisdictions in line with their duties, and assist relevant departments of the people's governments in performing the duties for supervision over and administration of work safety in accordance with the law or perform the duties for supervision over and management of work safety under authorization in accordance with the law.

Article 10  The emergency management department under the State Council exercises all-around supervision over nationwide work safety situation according to this Law. The emergency management departments of people's governments at or above the county level, in accordance with this Law, exercise all-around supervision over work safety within their administrative regions.

The relevant departments of the State Council, including departments of transportation, housing and urban-rural development, water resources, and civil aviation shall, in accordance with the provisions of this Law and other relevant laws and administrative regulations, supervise and administrate work safety of industries or sectors within the scope of their respective responsibilities. Relevant departments of the local people's governments at or above the county level shall, in accordance with the provisions of this Law and other relevant laws and regulations, supervise and administrate work safety in relevant industries or sectors within the scope of their respective responsibilities. Where there exist undefined duties for work safety supervision and administration of emerging industries or sectors, the local people's governments at or above the county level shall determine the specific departments responsible for work safety supervision and administration based on the principle of similarity in business.

The emergency management departments and the departments exercising supervision and administration of work safety in relevant industries or sectors are collectively referred to as the departments in charge of work safety supervision and administration. Such departments shall strengthen work safety supervision and administration in accordance with the law through collaboration, coordination, and sharing of information and resources.

Article 11  Relevant departments under the State Council shall, in compliance with the requirements for ensuring work safety and in accordance with the law, develop national standards or industry standards in a timely manner and make revisions in due course on the basis of technological advancement and economic development.  

Production and operation entities shall implement the national standards or industry standards for work safety formulated in accordance with the law.

Article 12  Relevant departments under the State Council shall, according to their respective duties, be responsible for proposing, organizing the drafting of, soliciting opinions for, and technically examining the projects of compulsory national standards for work safety. The emergency management department of the State Council shall put forward the overall plan for setting up projects of compulsory national standards for work safety. The administrative department in charge of standardization under the State Council shall be responsible for the project approval, numbering, and notification to the public, as well as authorization for the promulgation of the compulsory national standards for work safety. The administrative department in charge of standardization and other relevant departments under the State Council shall, in accordance with their statutory functions and duties, supervise and inspect the implementation of the compulsory national standards for work safety.

Article 13  People's governments at all levels and the relevant departments thereunder shall strengthen the publicity of laws and regulations as well as knowledge regarding work safety in various forms in order to raise the awareness of work safety in society.

Article 14  Relevant associations shall, in accordance with laws, administrative regulations, and articles of association, provide production and operation entities with information, training, and other services concerning work safety, and, by enhancing self-discipline, propel such entities to strengthening work safety management.

Article 15  The organizations legally established to provide technical and managerial services for work safety shall, in accordance with laws, administrative regulations, and practice standards, agree to be entrusted by production and operation entities to provide such services.

Production and operation entities that have entrusted organizations stated in the preceding paragraph with technical and managerial services shall remain responsible for guaranteeing their work safety.

Article 16  The state implements the system of accountability for accidents related to work safety. Entities and individuals responsible for such accidents shall be investigated for their legal accountability in accordance with the provisions in this Law and relevant laws or regulations.

Article 17  The people's governments at or above the county level shall organize departments responsible for the supervision and administration of work safety to compile a checklist of well-defined power and responsibility in work safety, disclose the checklist to the society and accept public supervision.

Article 18  The state encourages and supports scientific and technological research on work safety and the application of advanced technologies in this area in order to raise the work safety capacity.

Article 19  The state awards entities and individuals that have achieved outstanding successes in improving work safety conditions and preventing accidents related to work safety, and in rescue operations.