中国企业跨国并购中存在的劳动法律风险研究
The Research of the Labor Law Risk in the Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions of Chinese Enterprises 중국 기업의 글로벌 인수합병에서의 노동법적 리스크에 관하여
In China the cross-border M&A has become the main method to develop foreign market. According to the statistics, in 2015382 cross-border M&A projects were announced and the amount of the transaction was 67.4 billion dollars, which climbed to the highest level ever. However, not all M&A are plain sailing. There are many Chinese enterprises which have paid a heavy price on account of ignoring the various legal risks in the cross-border M&A. In these legal risks, the labor law risk is easy to be ignored and quite difficult to avoid. The cause of the labor law risk is that, in general, the labor law system is relatively perfect, and the protection of workers is stricter in the target enterprise’s country, and also Chinese enterprises are accustomed to the slack environment of labor law in China. So some enterprises ignore the labor law risk easily, or although some is aware of the risk but don't know how to take effective preventive measures in the cross-border M&A. Those labor law risks faced by Chinese enterprises in the process of cross-border M&A are mainly embodied in four aspects: The system of longer annual leaves with pay, the system of higher wages, the strict system of labor contract and the given and exercise of collective action right to the workers which is represented by the right to strike. Through comparing with the labor law system of Germany, Britain and Russia, we can find out the specific labor law risk that Chinese enterprise may face with in the cross-border M&A. At the same time we will put forward some measures in accordance with the relevant legal system, so as to cope with the associated risk. For example, the enterprise could set up a “Don’t Leave Bonus” to encourage workers to reduce the days of leave, or take the sectional leaves instead of disposable leaves for a long time. And the “cross-border M&A” can be interpreted as a major change in the circumstances to apply to the principle of “clausula rebus sic stantibus” so that they could request the workers or trade unions to modify the old contract or sign a new contract, and the enterprises could obtain an injunction by proving the illegality of the strike through legal procedures, close the businesses or employ temporaries to cope with the strike and other collective action. The particularity of the labor law risks in the cross-border M&A and the feasibility of the measures are determined by the labor law system of the target enterprise’ country. So the enterprises should take two steps to prevent these risks and ensure the progress of the cross-border M&A successfully: Analyzing and studying the target enterprise's national labor law system and finding out the risk; then making full use of the rule of the local laws and formulating the countermeasures.