New info today from The Wall Street Journal on the change in Chinese labor laws, changes that have been bitterly opposed by the business community:

China is putting the final touches on its most significant overhaul of workplace regulation in a decade, in an unusual process that has sparked debate on the trade-off between economic growth and worker protection.

China’s proposed Labor Contract Law is tentatively scheduled for final passage in June — a year and a half after it was presented to the nation’s legislature — by the standing committee of the National People’s Congress.

The draft law was first presented in December 2005, and the standing committee met in April to discuss it and other pending bills. If passed in June, the measure is expected to take effect next year. The delay in passing a labor law has been because of a surprising development in China: The government solicited public comments on the draft, and it received nearly 200,000 of them.

The debate has been heated at times. Business groups that commented on the draft law became a lightning rod for criticism by international labor groups, which accused them of trying to water down much-needed protection for Chinese workers.

    These changes are not coming because the government has become grandly pro-workers. The changes are a direct result of great tensions roiling the workplaces in China–brought on by the inability to have consistent and reliable work, lakc of contracts, the lack of independent unions and a growing divide between rich and poor.