Various Time Limits Related to Labor Disputes

Labor disputes shall be submitted to labor arbitration as a pre-litigation procedure. If any party is dissatisfied with the arbitration award, it may file a lawsuit. Therefore, the time limits for labor dispute cases are different from those for civil litigation. According to Paragraph 1 of Article 27 of the “Labor Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Law”, the time limit for applying for arbitration of a labor dispute is 1 year, calculated from the date when the party knows or should know that its rights have been infringed. In judicial practice, there are different opinions on the starting date for calculating the 1-year time limit, and the situations for applying such time limit. The following is a summary of the time limits for several common types of labor disputes.

  1. Time Limit for Disputes over Requesting Confirmation of Labor Relations

There is no clear nationwide regulation on this issue. Labor arbitration commissions strictly apply the 1-year time limit. Most courts hold that the 1-year time limit is applicable, but a few courts argue that confirming labor relations is an action for confirmation, which does not involve substantive rights and obligations, and thus the 1-year time limit shall not be applied. (e.g., (2023) Jing Min Shen No. 2341, (2023) Hu 02 Min Zhong No. 5718, (2023) Su 0113 Min Chu No. 340).

It should be noted that even if individual courts rule to confirm the labor relationship on the ground of an action for confirmation, the relevant substantive rights, such as double wages for failure to sign a contract timely, economic compensation, statutory paid annual leave and etc., shall still be adjudicated in accordance with the time limits related to those substantive rights.

  1. Time Limit for Disputes over the Difference in Double Wages for Failure to Sign a Labor Contract Timely

Article 7 of the “Regulations on the Implementation of the Labor Contract Law” stipulates: “If an employer fails to conclude a written labor contract with a worker within 1 year from the date of employment, it shall pay the worker twice the monthly wage in accordance with the provisions of Article 82 of the ‘Labor Contract Law’ from the day after the first month to the day before the first anniversary of the employment date…”

Paragraph 2 of Article 1 of the “Answers to Several Questions on Labor Disputes of Shanghai Municipality” stipulates that the 1-year arbitration time limit shall apply to the difference in double wages for failure to sign a labor contract timely, and the arbitration time limit shall be calculated monthly starting from the failure to sign a written labor contract. Article 41 of the “Answers to (I) on Trying Labor Dispute Cases jointly issued by the Beijing Higher People’s Court and the Beijing Municipal Labor and Personnel Dispute Arbitration Commission” stipulates that the 1-year arbitration time limit shall apply to the difference in double wages for failure to sign a labor contract timely, which shall be calculated on a daily basis for one year backward from the date when the worker claims rights. These two provisions are typical calculation methods in judicial practice. Shanghai adopts the forward calculation method, while Beijing uses the backward calculation method. Since both cities apply the 1-year arbitration time limit, the final results are almost the same. The difference lies in that Shanghai calculates on a monthly basis and Beijing calculates on a daily basis.

  1. Time Limit for Disputes over Labor Remuneration and Overtime Pay

Paragraph 4 of Article 27 of the “Labor Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Law” stipulates that disputes arising from the arrears of labor remuneration during the existence of the labor relationship shall not be subject to the 1-year arbitration time limit; however, if the labor relationship is terminated, the worker shall file a claim within 1 year from the date of termination of the labor relationship. In addition, Article 4 of the “Provisions on the Composition of Total Wages” stipulates that overtime pay is part of the total wages, so the arbitration time limit for overtime pay shall be implemented in accordance with that for arrears of labor remuneration.

There is a special occasion, that is, if the employer issues an IOU to the employee for the arrears of labor remuneration, according to Article 15 of the “Interpretation (I) of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Labor Dispute Cases”, the employee’s claim for the amount stated in the IOU does not involve disputes over labor relations and shall be subject to a 3-year statute of limitations. Accordingly, if the employer issues an IOU, it essentially transforms into a debt dispute as a normal civil dispute, and is no longer subject to the 1-year time limit.

  1. Time Limit for Disputes over Statutory Paid Annual Leave Wages

There are great differences in practice regarding the time limit for disputes over statutory paid annual leave wages. On December 12, 2023, the “Interpretation (II) of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Labor Dispute Cases (Draft for Comment)” was published to solicit opinions from the public. Article 5 of the draft stipulated that the arbitration time limit for unpaid annual leave wage remuneration should apply to the arbitration time limit for labor remuneration. However, when the judicial interpretation was officially issued in 2025, this article was deleted. In the 5th issue of Qiushi in 2025, Fan Wei, a professor from the School of Labor Economics of Capital University of Economics and Business, published an article titled “Differentiated Application of the Arbitration Time Limit for Annual Leave Wage Remuneration”, which specifically analyzed the nature of statutory paid annual leave wages, that is, in practice, there are two viewpoints, statutory paid annual leave wages belong to welfare and should be subject to the 1-year arbitration time limit; and statutory paid annual leave wages belong to labor remuneration and thus there is no time limit restriction during the existence of the labor contract.

The current local regulations issued by Shenzhen and Shandong Province reflect the aforementioned second viewpoint. The “Guidelines for the Trial of Labor Dispute Cases by the Intermediate People’s Court of Shenzhen” stipulates: “The time limit for applying for labor arbitration of unpaid annual leave wages shall start from January 1 of the third year. However, if the labor contract between the two parties is terminated or dissolved, it shall be calculated from the date of termination or dissolution of the labor contract.” Article 20 of the “Answers to Several Questions on the Trial of Labor Dispute Cases by the Third Tribunal for Trial Supervision of the Shandong Higher People’s Court” stipulates that the arbitration time limit for statutory paid annual leave shall be implemented in accordance with that for labor remuneration, that is, if the labor contract is in existence, the statutory paid annual leave wages that should have been enjoyed but not received since the employee joined the company can be claimed retroactively.

  1. Time Limit for Disputes over High-Temperature Allowances

Courts in Shanghai, Shandong, Shenzhen generally hold that high-temperature allowances refer to the special wage compensation paid to workers engaged in economic construction and enterprise production and operation activities under high-temperature conditions, so the nature of such allowances belong to non-labor remuneration income, and the arbitration time limit for claiming such allowances shall be the 1-year time limit, that is, calculated from the date when the party knows or should know that its rights have been infringed (e.g., (2023) Hu 0109 Min Chu No. 884, (2021) Yue 0306 Min Chu No. 34322).

However, the Beijing area tends to hold that such allowances belong to labor remuneration and are subject to the special arbitration time limit. Employees can apply for arbitration within one year after leaving their jobs (e.g., (2025) Jing 02 Min Zhong No. 2768).