Workers' Representation and Collective Contracts

CLB's InitiativesCLB has identified the development of genuine collective bargaining and collective labour contracts as the most effective way to empower Chinese workers and encourage them to stand up for their rights. Collective contracts directly negotiated by democratically elected workers’ representatives are legally enforceable in China, and as such provide powerful protection for the rights and interests of workers. Moreover, free collective bargaining can enhance labour-management relations and foster the spirit of peaceful and constructive dialogue that is so needed in Chinese society today. CLB is currently working with workers’ groups and unions in China and multinational companies in a bid to further this long-term project.

All China Federation Of Trade UnionsThe ACFTU is China's sole official union. It has traditionally been an adjunct of the Chinese Communist Party and government, serving as a "bridge" between workers and management in state-owned enterprises. With the economic reforms and development of the private economy over the last two decades the ACTFU's role has been blurred. It has sought to unionize the private sector but thus far has failed to encourage the development of genuinely representative grassroots unions. It has adopted a top-down approach, imposing unions and collective contracts on enterprises without consulting the workers themselves. However CLB believes the ACFTU, especially at the local level, can play a positive role in the future development of grassroots unions.

Corporate Social ResponsibilitySince the mid-1990s, CSR initiatives such as corporate codes of conduct have been promoted by many multinational companies as a means of protecting workers' rights at their Chinese supplier factories. Codes of conduct have helped improve working conditions at some factories, however, much like the government and ACFTU's collective contracts programme, corporate codes of conduct have largely been imposed on factories in a top-down manner and without the involvement of the workforce. CLB argues that best way to ensure codes of conduct are properly adhered to is through the negotiation of collective contracts with management by democratically elected workers' representatives. As such, we are actively encouraging multi-nationals to focus their CSR efforts in China on collective contracts and democratically elected grassroots unions.


	Will the New Year see a resumption of collective bargaining in China?
	As the Chinese economy recovers, an influential magazine calls on the government and trade unions to take concerted measures to alleviate the growing conflict between workers and management. Photo. Onekel


	County government squeezes out community teachers
	Two community teachers from Jianchang county in Liaoning, both fired by the local government in 2007, talk about their attempts to seek redress and the corrupt and underhand activities of local officials.


	Job seeker successfully sues hospital for violation of right to privacy
	A 25 year-old university graduate with Hepatitis B has, for the first time in China, successfully sued a hospital for violating his right to privacy after it gave the results of his blood test to a prospective employer.


	Politburo official calls for hukou reform – rights of migrant workers high on NPC agenda
	Momentum towards reform of China’s household registration (hukou) system seems to be growing in the build-up to this year’s National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s annual parliament, which opens at the end of this week. Zhou Yongkang, China’s most senior official in charge of public and state security, wrote in the Communist Party’s theoretical journal Seeking Truth (求是) that there was now an “urgent” need to reform the country’s anachronistic policy of dividing citizens into urban and rural residents, and explore new ways of managing internal migration.