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China’s officially recognized trade unions have said they will begin a campaign to persuade businesses to improve their performance on workers’ rights – but critics are claiming the announcement is not worth the paper it is written on.
The All-China Federation of Trade Unions has said it will pay special attention to migrant workers’ conditions as part of the campaign. There are thought to be 94 million rural labourers seeking work in China’s cities, and their numbers are said to be rising by five million a year. Many are accommodated in dormitory-type buildings and one case has been reported of 100 workers sharing one toilet.
The migrant workers are employed mostly by privately run businesses and state companies, have no contracts and generally do not belong to unions.
Monina Wong Ching-man, research co-ordinator of the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee, said: ‘Migrant workers have the so-called 3D jobs – dirty, dangerous and demanding. Because they don’t enjoy any protection, strikes are common, which gives rise to the problem of social instability.’
Su Liqing, a vice-chairman of the federation, said it was time for his organization to absorb migrant workers as members and to encourage them to form unions.
However, the new approach was seen only as a ‘passive improvement’ by Li Qiang, director of the New York-based China Labor Watch. He said: ‘The federation has to revise its constitution because of rising discontent among workers. The government fears [migrant workers] will form an independent labour movement outside its control. So to prevent this from happening, the federation is seeking to absorb them into its ranks.’
Li said he believed the new policy had the potential to solve longstanding labour problems but feared it could be merely a means of increasing the federation’s power and boosting its image.
Independent trade unions are currently illegal in China, and all existing officially controlled trade unions are under the umbrella of the All China Federation of Trade Unions, which is effectively a government bureaucracy.
The Chinese government recently passed a new Labour Contract Law, which comes into effect on 1 January 2008, that requires employers to submit any plans for changes to pay, hours, insurance, safety, holidays and training for discussion to a workers’ congress, with employers and trade union representatives jointly deciding on workplace agreements.
The new law gives officially sanctioned trade union representatives the right to sign collective contracts with employers on behalf of workers, sets out new requirements on severance pay, makes written contracts mandatory, and strongly discourages fixed-or short-term contracts.
The All-China Federation of Trade Unions has said it will pay special attention to migrant workers’ conditions as part of the campaign. There are thought to be 94 million rural labourers seeking work in China’s cities, and their numbers are said to be rising by five million a year. Many are accommodated in dormitory-type buildings and one case has been reported of 100 workers sharing one toilet.
The migrant workers are employed mostly by privately run businesses and state companies, have no contracts and generally do not belong to unions.
Monina Wong Ching-man, research co-ordinator of the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee, said: ‘Migrant workers have the so-called 3D jobs – dirty, dangerous and demanding. Because they don’t enjoy any protection, strikes are common, which gives rise to the problem of social instability.’
Su Liqing, a vice-chairman of the federation, said it was time for his organization to absorb migrant workers as members and to encourage them to form unions.
However, the new approach was seen only as a ‘passive improvement’ by Li Qiang, director of the New York-based China Labor Watch. He said: ‘The federation has to revise its constitution because of rising discontent among workers. The government fears [migrant workers] will form an independent labour movement outside its control. So to prevent this from happening, the federation is seeking to absorb them into its ranks.’
Li said he believed the new policy had the potential to solve longstanding labour problems but feared it could be merely a means of increasing the federation’s power and boosting its image.
Independent trade unions are currently illegal in China, and all existing officially controlled trade unions are under the umbrella of the All China Federation of Trade Unions, which is effectively a government bureaucracy.
The Chinese government recently passed a new Labour Contract Law, which comes into effect on 1 January 2008, that requires employers to submit any plans for changes to pay, hours, insurance, safety, holidays and training for discussion to a workers’ congress, with employers and trade union representatives jointly deciding on workplace agreements.
The new law gives officially sanctioned trade union representatives the right to sign collective contracts with employers on behalf of workers, sets out new requirements on severance pay, makes written contracts mandatory, and strongly discourages fixed-or short-term contracts.
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