Returning migrant workers and college graduates participate in a job fair in Anqing, East China's Anhui Province, on June 19, 2022. More than 120 enterprises in the city participated in the fair, offering more than 6,000 jobs in industries including biotechnology and new energy. More than 1,100 applicants accepted jobs on the spot. Photo: VCG

An urgent notice jointly issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the National Health Commission on Monday vows a decisive crackdown on job discrimination against recovered COVID-19 patients amid a public outcry for equal rights of employment for those with an infection history.

The notice stressed the prohibition on employers and human resource service providers from refusing to recruit or hire recovered COVID-19 patients with the excuse that they had once tested positive for the COVID-19. 

The latest notice pointed out that mobile apps, such as health codes, have been improperly used by some recruiters and employers in some places as tools to check job applicants' history of COVID-19 infection, and discrimination against the recovered patients has severely violated workers' rights and interests to equal employment.
 
The authorities called for a scientific understanding of the transmission mechanism of the COVID-19 virus, the major transmission channels of which are respiratory droplets and close contact. COVID-19 patients who have tested negative after treatment, and have met the standards for discharge from a hospital or from quarantine, will not spread the virus in their daily life or work.

The authorities also stipulated that the relevant results for nucleic acid tests shall not be queried illegally without authorization by any company or individual, apart from the need for epidemic prevention and control.
 
The notice also vowed to investigate and expose job discrimination and further smooth channels for complaints and reports. 

It emphasized the prohibition of discriminatory content in job advertisements against people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and have since recovered, and it vowed to strengthen inspection of employers' and human resource service providers' illegal checking of nucleic acid testing results. 

A migrant worker surnamed Ren who was once left jobless and homeless and had to live at the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station for over one month due to his history of infection told the Global Times on Monday that he had just found a job in his hometown in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province. 

Upon arrival in Nanjing, Ren has been required to take nucleic acid tests regularly according to the local epidemic prevention and control policy. Nobody has queried his history of infection during his job-hunting. 

The Monday notice is a further move that came amid a public outcry for equal employment rights for recovered COVID-19 patients who have been reportedly struggling to find jobs. 

Media outlets reported in July that those who had recovered from COVID-19 were struggling to find jobs in Omicron-hit Shanghai, as they were rejected by some employers due to their history of infection. 

Shanghai's job market has been severely challenged by COVID-19 this year with the financial hub's unemployment rate soaring to 12.5 percent in the second quarter. Shanghai authorities have advocated to roll out relevant solutions and have asked all parties in society to assist in boosting employment.

In response to the outcry, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stressed equal rights of employment and called for the punishment of those who discriminate against recovered COVID-19 patients, during a meeting of the State Council, China's cabinet, on July 14. 

China's Supreme People's Court also made it clear on July 24 that it plans to decisively prohibit job discrimination against recovered COVID-19 patients in its next phase of work.