Lawyers commended for defending employees’ rights

The seventh award ceremony recognizing Chinese lawyers for their outstanding work in defending employees' rights and interests was held in Beijing on Nov 9. Xiong Xuanguo, Vice Minister of Justice, attended the event and gave a speech.

In his speech, Xiong called on Chinese lawyers to continue providing legal services for employees across the country, including migrant workers, so as to enhance their sense of gain, happiness and security in the building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and advancing overall law-based governance. 

Protecting employees' rights and interests is not only intrinsically necessary for the implementation of a people-centered development philosophy, but it also embodies lawyers' commitment to practicing law for the people as well as their efforts to meet their social responsibilities, said Xiong. 

He said that lawyers should focus on employees' most direct and realistic concerns and make their services more inclusive, accurate and effective through innovation. 

Over the past seven years, a total of 69 lawyers have been presented with awards at the ceremony which is jointly organized by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the Ministry of Justice and the All China Lawyers Association. 

The ceremony also summarized a campaign that provides pro bono legal services for migrant workers. Since its launch in 2017, the campaign has mobilized 27,000 volunteer lawyers to hold 35,000 pro bono legal service events, offer free services to 23 million migrant workers, and help them recover nearly 2 billion yuan ($302 million) in economic losses.