Brussels, 03/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) welcomes the new labour contract law adopted last week by the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress. “The law is a significant step forwards in protecting the rights of individual workers. It now needs to be scrupulously enforced in all areas of activity in China”, said John Monks, ETUC general secretary. He also said how pleased he was to see that “the new law draws from labour provisions in the EU and is not considered to be a brake on competitiveness. This demonstrates that the European Social Model is appreciated worldwide and gives the lie to those who would have European workers give up their hard-won rights in the name of global competition”. (gb)