Moving a China employee to another city: consent, refusal and employer options

1. Separate the location, duties and employing entity

Article 17 of the PRC Labor Contract Law makes work content and workplace mandatory contract terms. Read the signed contract, amendments and actual working arrangements together. Identify the existing city and site, the proposed location, whether the move is temporary or permanent, and any changes to duties, hours, reporting or remuneration. Distinguish a genuine business trip from a lasting change of workplace; the label in an overseas manager’s email is not decisive.

Check who remains the employer. Moving within the same legal entity is different from moving employment to a group affiliate. A group chart does not substitute for documents addressing the new employer, accrued rights and service continuity. Do not ask an employee to resign and rejoin merely to make the administrative transfer easier; identify the legal arrangement before changing payroll or the contract party.

2. Test the contractual authority against the real impact

A broad mobility clause is a starting point for review, not a universal permission to require any move. Articles 3 and 29 require lawful, good-faith contracting and performance of the agreed obligations. Assess the clause’s wording and agreed scope, the genuine business reason, past performance, and the burden of the proposed change. An employment lawyer should assess the applicable local approach before the company relies on a clause alone.

Prepare a comparison of travel time, transport, housing, working hours, duties and total remuneration. Ask employees to explain practical constraints and assess suitable alternatives, such as a different site or a documented transition. Transport or housing support may reduce the burden, but payment of an allowance does not automatically establish consent or legality. Do not treat an administrative city boundary, unchanged job title or unchanged base salary as a complete legal test.

3. Make the proposed change and the employee’s answer clear

For a change to agreed terms, Article 35 provides for mutual agreement and written form, with each party retaining a copy. Set out the new workplace, effective date, duration, duties and any pay or support arrangements, including what happens when a temporary arrangement ends. Confirm who is authorized to sign for the China employer. Keep a consistent Chinese text and any English version used by headquarters.

Give the employee enough information to respond, record questions and alternatives, and distinguish receipt of a notice from acceptance of the proposed amendment. A signature acknowledging receipt does not necessarily record agreement. During discussions, clarify where work should be performed and how duties and pay continue; do not leave attendance instructions and system access inconsistent with the company’s stated position.

Article 43 of the SPC Interpretation (I) addresses an agreed oral amendment actually performed for more than one month, where the amended terms violate neither laws and administrative regulations nor public order and good morals. In that situation, lack of writing alone does not invalidate the change. This is not a rule that silence for one month automatically authorizes a relocation. Preserve evidence of agreement, performance and objections; written confirmation remains the practical first choice.

4. Refusal requires a separate decision, not an automatic dismissal

If the employee refuses, identify the reason and whether the instruction itself is lawful and contractually supported. Do not automatically record refusal as resignation or serious misconduct. If the company considers Article 39(2), examine the valid and communicated rules, the facts and seriousness of the alleged violation, and the employee’s explanation. Interpretation (I), Article 44 places the burden of proof on the employer for disputes arising from its dismissal decisions.

Article 40(3) is a distinct route: a material change in the objective circumstances underlying the contract must make performance impossible, and consultation must fail to produce agreement on amending the contract. A consolidation decision or unsuccessful relocation negotiation does not by itself prove all of those conditions. Preserve why the original arrangement cannot continue, the alternatives actually offered and the employee’s responses.

Before using Article 40, screen the Article 42 protections, including applicable medical-treatment, pregnancy, maternity and breastfeeding, occupational-injury or disease, and other protected situations. If the route is available, Article 40 requires 30 days’ advance written notice to the employee or one additional month’s wages; Article 46 separately requires statutory severance, calculated under Article 47. Review the prior union-notification requirement in Article 43 as applicable. These are termination requirements, not a general 30-day permission to change an employee’s city.

5. Choose the route using a complete relocation file

Keep one decision file containing the contract and mobility clause, business and site records, the old/new conditions comparison, written proposals, support costs, delivery evidence, employee responses, protected-status checks and any agreed interim arrangements. For a wider workforce exercise, assess the collective process separately; this individual review does not replace an Article 41 redundancy analysis.

The file should support one coherent route: continued performance within lawful existing terms, an agreed amendment, a negotiated exit or a legally supported termination. Record the true initiator and payment basis of any settlement. An unsupported dismissal can engage Article 48 continued-performance remedies or Article 87 compensation; paying a relocation allowance or notice pay does not cure missing grounds. Start a consultation with a non-confidential outline of the two locations, employer, proposed date and employee’s response, then arrange secure review of the personnel documents.