China's harsher workplace safety law to take effect

BEIJING - China's revised Workplace Safety Law, which imposes harsher punishment on offenders, will take effect Monday.

Adopted in August, the amendment stipulates fines ranging from 200,000 yuan ($32,500) to 20 million yuan for enterprises involved in serious workplace accidents, depending on the resultant losses.

Under the old law, fines for enterprises violating the law were no more than 100,000 yuan or less than five times the income earned from the illegal operations.

Managers of such enterprises who are found to have failed in their duty to ensure safety can be fined between 30 and 80 percent of their annual income corresponding to losses.

A judicial interpretation jointly mapped by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate will also take effect Monday, stipulating harsher punishment for the production and sale of fake and substandard pharmaceuticals.

According to the document, those who produce or sell fake or substandard drugs for pregnant women, infants, children and patients in critical condition will be given particularly heavier penalties.