Europe's labour laws make workers lazy, says Chinese finance chief

China has accused European workers of being ‘slothful’ and ‘indolent’ after refusing to put any of its vast resources into rescuing the euro.

The head of the Chinese state’s overseas investment arm said he would only help Europe if it reformed its ‘outdated’ labour laws and welfare systems. 

Jin Liqun, chairman of the board of supervisors of China Investment Corporation, said Europeans should stop ‘languishing on the beach’ and work harder it they want to drag the eurozone out of its downward spiral.

And he said Europeans have become too reliant on state handouts and should stop looking to outside sources to tackle the debt crisis threatening the euro.

The broadside will deal yet another blow to Europe’s efforts to prevent the crisis in Greece from tearing apart the single currency.

At last week’s G20 summit of the world’s largest economies in Cannes, China rebuffed requests to put its financial might behind a comprehensive rescue plan to shore up the debt-laden countries on the eurozone’s periphery. European leaders had hoped the world’s second largest economy would help underwrite a significant expansion of its £380billion bailout fund. 

But Mr Jin scotched any prospect of China coming to their aid with a candid critique of European working practices.

In an interview on the Al Jazeera TV station, he said: ‘I think if you look at the troubles which have happened in European countries, this is purely because of the accumulated troubles of their worn-out welfare societies.

‘Labour laws are outdated, the labour laws induce sloth, indolence rather than hard working. The incentive system is totally out of whack.’

Mr Jin, a Boston University graduate, said root-and-branch reform of European welfare systems was urgently required.

Mr Jin said generous safety nets discourage the unemployed from finding full-time work

Generous safety nets merely discouraged workers who have lost their jobs from finding full-time employment.

He said: ‘The welfare system is good for any society to reduce the gap, to help those who happen to have disadvantages, to enjoy a good life, but a welfare society should not induce people not to work hard.

‘If you look at the European countries over the last five or six decades, you will find this system will have to be adjusted.’

Huge discrepancies in social welfare systems were an obstacle to fostering the closer ties between eurozone members that many economists believe are the only long-term solution to the crisis. 

Mr Jin said: ‘Why should for instance, within eurozone, why should some members’ people have to work to 65, even longer, whereas in some other countries they are happily retiring at 55, languishing on the beach. This is unfair.’

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