I have a friend who works in an Italian company in China. In that company , there is an Italian female employee who needs to apply the resident permit in China. In China, only the company can apply the resident permit for employees. In this case, this female employee prepared all the required documents, since her husband also works in Shanghai, she did also provide a copy of her husband’s ID as required by the government. In order to get her own work permit she need to get her company ID verified by her own company. When she brought all documents to the company and asked the GM to stamp on it, but the GM denied.
The GM said that he could only stamp the documents of this female employee, but not her husband’s ID, because obviously the company has responsibility over her resident permit, but not her husband. The company does not know if there was anything wrong with the document of her husband, yet, if anything went wrong, the company and the GM himself would take responsibility as well as bear the outcomes.
We can’t say this GM is wrong, because from his side, the concern is right, and he is just being cautious. From the employee’s side, without the company stamp, she cannot get the resident permit, and actually this is her right as a good employee in that company. Therefore, it comes to a question? Why is that? Who is wrong in this case? Who should take the responsibility?
To answer such question, people might chose to support employee or GM. However, let’s think from a very different side: Why government requires company stamp on all the documents, even some documents are not even related to the company? Why the Chinese government ask company bear the outcomes if anything went wrong (i.e, there is some faked document)?
The employee is applying the resident permit, her company is helping her to do this. The company is proving that she has a proper job in China. To me, it seems that it is the government’s responsibility to check through all the documents. If there is any document is faked, then is the government offices’ responsibility to find it out. For example, if the employee have the resident permit, but the government found there is some faked personal document, and resident shall be in-valid, and the company also faces questioning and punishment for this. I would ask, why the government office can’t find this out in the first place when they submit the document? Should not they look thought all the document carefully then issue the resident permit?
The company stamp shall be the only prove that this employee actually works in the company and have proper income. For those personal document, the company or GM is not capable to identify a faked document. To be fair, the government might not ask company to stamp on the document that is personal related. Or, at least, the bad outcomes may not be taken by the company. After all, the application process is controlled by government, and related authorities shall take the responsibility.
Written by Annie An Qing