R i g h t a r d i a: China is allowing trade unions and collective bargaining

Friday, December 9, 2011

China is allowing trade unions and collective bargaining

KYOTO / SHENYANG - An official with the International Labour Organization (ILO) said Collective bargaining can help reduce labor disputes in the world's largest manufacturing nation, said .

Sachiko Yamamoto, ILO regional director for Asia and the Pacific, told China Daily that dialogue and collective bargaining are important to ensure that workers are properly paid.

China plans to introduce collective negotiations in 80 percent of the enterprises that have unions by 2013, It plans to set up unions in at least 90 percent of its companies by that year.

Multinational corporations are among the first batch of companies asked to unionize.

Among about 4,800 plants set up by Fortune 500 companies in China, 93 percent have already established unions, according to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

The outlet of Swedish home furnishings retailer Ikea in Shenyang recently agreed to a wage increase mechanism for workers under a collective contract.

Among 49 Fortune 500 companies that have invested in Shenyang, 47 have introduced collective negotiations, Duan Yang, vice-chairwoman of Shenyang Federation of Trade Unions, said:

Collective negotiations are beneficial to both employers and employees. An enterprise's growth needs laborers, and at the same time, only when workers' interests are protected can the enterprise sustain growth,

But Duan said that although collective contracts were signed at most companies, clauses about wage increases were not clearly stated in some of them. She noted:

Many disputes are about pay rises, and that's what enterprises care about most and also what we want to help workers with.

Although trade unions and collective bargaining are allowed in China, strikes are not. However, Chinese workers have been known to be harsh with managers that have cheated or insulted them.