Grace Yang, Author at Harris Bricken

Grace Yang

China Employee Non-Compete Agreements and Their Appropriate Geographic Scope

When drafting China employee agreements, I often have to deal with the issue of non-compete provisions. One of the recurring non-compete issues is the geographic scope appropriate for the employee. The general rule for China on this is quite simple: China will enforce a “reasonable” geographic scope. But what does that even mean? The analysis

China Employee Non-Compete Agreements: The Price You’ll Pay

A Non-Compete Agreement is a contract where one party agrees not to compete with the other. These agreements reduce the likelihood of someone using information you provide them to compete against you. Non-compete agreements are fairly common between Western companies and their more important employees and it is common for those Western companies to want

China Employer Audits and Signed Employment Agreements

No foreign employer is too small for China’s employment law regulators and in some respects the smaller you are, the greater your risks. I say this because when a company with 5,000 employees has a problem with five employees, it’s not that big a deal, but when a five-employee company has a problem with two

China employee termination because of the economy

China Employee Terminations when Economic Circumstances Change

Terminating a China-based employee usually requires good cause. A serious breach of employer rules and regulations can be a basis for an employer’s unilateral termination of an employee, but China employers have other options as well. A China-based employer may terminate an employment contract if the economic circumstances which formed the basis for the parties signing the

How to Whip Your China Employee Handbook into Shape

If it has been a while (say over a year or longer) since you reviewed and updated your China employer rules and regulations, you should get on it now. Creating employer rules and regulations (a/k/a an employee handbook) takes a fair amount of hard work, but once you have a well-written handbook, updating it should

How to Avoid China Employment Law Problems: Employer Audits

I am always writing how it has become more important than ever for foreign companies in China to have China-centric employment contracts and employer rules and regulations (aka employee handbook). But to stay on the right side of China’s toughened employment enforcement and to avoid costly disputes with your employees, you need more. You need

China Employment Contracts: Do Them in Chinese

Don’t waste your money with an English language employment contract Our China lawyers sometimes get “simple” questions from our WFOE clients regarding China’s labor law. One such question is whether they must use Chinese as the prevailing language for their employment contracts with their employees, especially with their expat employees. This question is not as

China Expat Pay: Splitting with Hong Kong is Illegal and Dangerous

As China steps up its tax enforcement against both foreign companies and foreigners, we are seeing increasing instances where expat employees working in China are having their salaries “split” by their Chinese or foreign company employers. We strongly counsel our employer clients against doing this sort of salary splitting and we even more strongly counsel

China Expat Employment Contracts: Red Flags

As part of our China employment work, our China employment lawyers are often tasked with helping expats navigate the China employee onboarding process, including reviewing and revising their employment-related documents, such as employment contracts. This involves our making sure our clients’ contracts protect their interests and achieve their goals and minimize the likelihood of confusion

China Employee Dispatch and IP Protection

China places many restrictions on hiring employees using employee dispatch companies (a/k/a third party hiring agencies) and there are a number of legal issues foreign companies that go this route should consider, and IP is one of them. Normally, the way this system works is the foreign company and the employee dispatch company sign a