Lawmakers in China's Guangzhou City have urged the establishment of special trial courts to handle labor contract disputes, which witnessed a sharp increase after the implementation of a new labor law and massive company closures.

Labor contract disputes soared in the region after the country enforced a new Labor Contract Law last year, which bans employers from freewill and illegal termination of labor contracts, Saturday's China Daily quoted anonymous sources with the Guangzhou intermediate people's court as saying.

The increasing disputes were also partially prompted by the massive company closures in the Pearl River Delta region following the global economic downturn, it said.

More than 2,800 trials involving labor disputes were handled in the first half of this year, accounting for more than half of the civil cases heard by the court, said Yu Mingyong, deputy president of the Guangzhou intermediate people's court.

The number of labor disputes heard in court increased from 2,070 in 2007 to more than 3,300 last year, and most of the disputes are related to back pay and appeals for compensation from workers who were laid off.

"Judges are working overtime to handle labor disputes since we don't have special courts to deal with such cases." Yu told the newspaper.

Ye Yucai, a deputy to the local people's congress, urged the local authority to establish the courts.

"Some workers involved in labor disputes have to wait a long time for final court rulings because there are so many trials backed up," Ye said.

Such special courts have already been set up in Shenzhen and Foshan, two delta region cities also witnessing soaring labor disputes.

Guangzhou has a labor dispute arbitration office, but many disputes are turned over to the court after companies and workers fail to reach a settlement agreement.

(Xinhua News Agency September 5, 2009)