Answer:
In practice, there are many cases where the Employer and the Employee only agree on the positions or job title specified in a LC and without a description of the tasks that the Employee must fulfil. From a legal perspective, the labour law does not require the Employer to attach a job description to the LC, but requires the Employer to set the regulation on evaluating the Employee’s task completion level after consulting the organisation representing L at the grassroots level if the Employer wishes to unilaterally terminate the LC for the reason that the Employee cannot fulfil his or her tasks[1].
We should be aware that it is not necessary for all the job positions or titles to be attached with a detailed job description. Normally, simple jobs do not need a job description attached to the LC. On the other hand, Jobs that are more complicated, office-related, managerial jobs etc. will have job descriptions attached to the LC. But this cannot prevent the Employer from building the requirements or criteria for the Employee who does not have job descriptions attached to his or her LC.
Therefore, the lack of a job description is not a legal reason to prevent The Employer from evaluating the Employee’s task completion level, especially when the Employer has complied with the procedure for setting the regulation on evaluating the Employee’s performance and the contents of this regulation are consistent with each position and department in the enterprise; and the Employee is fully aware of the requirements and criteria that the Employer sets out for him or her.
However, it is evident that job descriptions will create more advantages for the Employer when the Employer needs to evaluate the Employee’s task completion level, or contrast the job description with the criteria set out in the regulation on evaluating the Employee’s performance. If a job description is not available, the Employee may disagree with the Employer’s conclusions when the Employer think that the criteria set out in the regulation on evaluating the Employee’s performance do not belong to the responsibilities and duties that they must fulfil.
If job descriptions have not been attached to the LC and now the Employer wants to add them, this must be considered as a form of amending and supplementing. Therefore, if the Employer needs to add a detailed job description to the LC as its integral part, they must notify the Employee of the items to be supplemented to the LC at least 3 working days in advance. If the two parties can reach an agreement, the amendment or supplement of the LC will be made by signing contract appendices or entering into a new LC. If the two parties cannot negotiate the amendment or supplement of the LC, then they must continue to execute the signed LC[2], meaning that there is no job description attached to the LC.
[1]Article 36.1 of the Labour Code
[2]Article 35 of the Labour Code
