Professor Alan Neal, Director of the Employment Law Research Unit in the University of Warwick’s School of Law, has been appointed to undertake a 3-year research project together with colleagues in the Labour Law and Social Security Institute of Peking University, on behalf of the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The project, “Creating a Legal Framework for Harmonious Labour Relations in China”, which forms part of China’s current 5-year plan (2011-2015), is being financed by the PRC’s National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science, and has been awarded the largest social science grant (800,000 RMB or £81,000) made to date by that body in China.

Professor Neal, who joined the United Kingdom Government’s China Task Force in 2011, served between 2005-2007 as an independent international expert to the Chinese Ministry of Labour and Human Resources drafting the PRC’s Labour Contract Law 2007. He holds a lifetime Professorial Chair in the Zhejiang University and is a Visiting Professor in the Beijing Jiao Tong University.

At a ceremony in Beijing on 24 May 2012, Professor Neal delivered a public presentation on “Comparative Approaches to Labour Dispute Resolution”, following which he was formally appointed as a “Standing High-Level Expert” in the Labour Law and Social Security Institute of Peking University.

Professor Neal said:

“For three years I headed the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Global Opportunities Fund technical assistance programme to establish a pilot labour arbitration court in China (and that model, launched in 2005, is now operating in over half of the 33 Provincial Divisions of the People’s Republic). I am delighted to have the privilege of offering further high level advice and research to help Chinese policy makers in this important policy area.”

For further details please contact:

Peter Dunn, Head of Communications, University of Warwick,
Tel: 024 76 523708 Mobile 07767 655860
p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk

PR87 PJD 19th June 2012