April 24-April 30
China
The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) has directed judges to apply the same compensation standards to rural and urban residents who are injured or killed due to tortious behavior. Effective May 1, 2022, judges will calculate personal injury compensation based on the average per capita disposable income of urban residents in the victim’s province, regardless of whether the victim is registered as an urban or rural resident. Registered rural residents - including those actually working in cities - have long been compensated at a lower rate, a practice popularly criticized as “same life, different price.”
The Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued revised criteria for charging and prosecuting suspects in 78 types of economic crimes. As explained at the press conference, the revision updates the threshold requirements for prosecuting economic crimes in light of economic development and changes in relevant laws and judicial interpretations. The revised criteria will take effect on May 15, 2022.
Shanghai’s bureau of human resources and social security has issued guidelines indicating that when workers are unable to work due to mandated quarantine or lockdown, they should receive their normal pay and not be terminated.
The Supreme People’s Court has released five typical cases dealing with the crime of obstructing epidemic prevention and control. Guangdong Province’s High Court has released ten typical labor dispute cases addressing several emerging issues, including determining employment relations in atypical modes of employment and employers’ responsibility for maintaining employment relations during the pandemic.
Hong Kong
A Hong Kong judge sentenced a university student to five years in prison for inciting secession by advocating for the city’s independence in Telegram messages. The judge originally sentenced the student to 3 years and 8 months after he pleaded guilty, but increased the sentence after the prosecutor objected.
Hong Kong’s security secretary revealed in a written reply to the legislative council that about 90 cases related to the 2019 protests took 300-400 days from the defendants’ first appearance at Magistrates’ Courts to the conclusion of their case at the District Court - about 30% longer than other criminal cases. As of February 28, 2022, 10,277 people had been arrested in connection with the protests and only 2,804 or 27% had been prosecuted. Courts have convicted 1,172 persons.
A Hong Kong court has upheld a non-guilty verdict for Marc Progin, a Swiss photographer who was charged with aiding an attack on a mainland Chinese man during the 2019 protests. Progin had closed the glass door of an office building as the mainlander tried to escape an angry crowd. Progin was acquitted in November 2020 but the prosecution applied for a review.
Japan
A Japanese lawmaker pleaded not guilty to charges of violating the public offices election law during the general election for the House of Representatives last October. He is alleged to have sent letters to voters before the start of the official campaign period.
Koreas
The chair of a working group on bribery under the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a letter to Korea’s Justice Ministry that a bill recently proposed by the ruling party to reduce prosecutors’ investigative power would weaken the country’s capacity to fight corruption and bribery.
South Korean police are pondering the legality of hacking into the computers and mobile phones of criminal suspects in order to surveil them and collect evidence of offenses in real time. Recent research commissioned by the National Human Rights Commission concluded that such surveillance should be allowed to eradicate digital sex crimes against children and adolescents. But the proposal has given rise to a controversy over possible infringement of fundamental rights. Now the National Office of Investigation at the Korean National Police Agency has issued a call for bids to carry out further research into the proposal.
Four unionized workers of Sanofi Aventis Korea, the local subsidiary of a French multinational pharmaceutical company, sued top managers for allegedly failing to pay overtime in violation of the Labor Standards Act. They say that the managers abused the flexible working hour system.
Taiwan
As Taiwan’s Labor Occupational Hazard Insurance and Protection Act (勞工職業災害保險及保護法) is about to take effect on May 1, 2022, several trade unions have pledged to lobby for greater legal accountability of employers with respect to work-related injuries. The new law compels most companies, regardless of size, to hold insurance against liability for employee injury but the unions say that the required insurance is minimal.