China issues highly critical human rights report on US -- citing police violence, mass spying, torture

Section 7. Worker RightsShare a. Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective BargainingThe law does not provide for freedom of association, and workers are not free to organize or join unions of their own choosing. Independent unions are illegal, workers are not free to organize, and the right to strike is not protected in law. The law states that trade union representatives at each level should be elected and allows for collective bargaining for workers in all types of enterprises. Collective contracts can include “matters of remuneration, working hours, breaks, vacations, work safety and hygiene, insurance, benefits, etc.” It further provides that there may be industrial or regional collective contracts “in industries such as construction, mining, and catering services in regions at or below the county level.” Many autonomous regions and municipalities enacted local rules allowing collective wage negotiation, which are supposed to be compulsory in 25 of 31 provinces.

The law provides legal protections against antiunion discrimination and specifies that union representatives may not be transferred or terminated by enterprise management during their term of office. The Trade Union Law provides for the reinstatement of workers dismissed for union activity, as well as other penalties for antiunion activity.

The Labor Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Law provides for labor dispute resolution through a three-stage process: mediation between the parties, arbitration by officially designated arbitrators, and litigation. A key article of this law requires employers to consult with labor unions or employee representatives on matters that have a direct bearing on the immediate interests of their workers.

All union activity must be approved by and organized under the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), a CCP organ chaired by a member of the Politburo tasked to “uphold the leadership of the CCP,” even while its official mandate is to protect the rights and interests of workers. The ACFTU and its provincial and local branches continued aggressively to organize new constituent unions and add new members, especially in large, multinational enterprises.

The ACFTU and affiliated unions also represent employees in negotiating and signing collective contracts with enterprises or public institutions. The role of the ACFTU in a strike is primarily limited to participating in investigations and assisting the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in resolving disputes, rather than representing workers in those disputes.

Regulations require a union to gather input from workers prior to consultation with management and to submit collective contracts to workers or their congress for approval. There is no legal obligation for employers to negotiate or to bargain in good faith, and some employers refused to do so. While the law does not expressly prohibit work stoppages and it is not illegal for workers to strike spontaneously, the obligation to “observe labor discipline and public order” effectively permits governments at any level to ban strikes. Some provincial legislation facilitated collective consultations, while other provincial legislation contained provisions prohibiting workers from taking collective action and allowing employers to fire workers who engage in collective action, including strikes, during the negotiation of a collective contract.

While there were no publicly available official statistics on inspection efforts to enforce these laws, domestic media occasionally reported on courts awarding monetary compensation for wrongful terminations of union representatives. Enforcement of labor laws was generally insufficient to deter wide-scale violations. Labor inspectors lack authority to compel employers to correct violations, which resulted in simple violations being treated as disputes. While the law outlines general procedures for resolving disputes, including mediation, arbitration and recourse to the courts, procedures were lengthy and subject to delays, and workers often lacked the time, resources, or organized advocacy to pursue such cases.

Despite the appearance of a strong labor movement and relatively high levels of unionization, genuine freedom of association and worker representation did not exist. ACFTU constituent unions were generally ineffective in representing and protecting the rights and interests of workers. This was particularly true in the case of migrant workers, who generally had less interaction with official unions, who tended to work in foreign-invested enterprises, and for whom, especially among second-generation migrant workers, expectations of working conditions increased.

The ACFTU and the CCP maintained a variety of mechanisms to influence the selection of trade union representatives. Although the law states that trade union officers at each level should be elected, most factory-level officers were appointed by ACFTU-affiliated unions, often in coordination with employers. Official union leaders were often drawn from the ranks of management. Direct election by workers of union leaders continued to be rare, occurred only at the enterprise level, and was subject to supervision by higher levels of the union or the CCP. In enterprises where direct election of union officers took place, regional ACFTU officers and local CCP authorities retained control over the selection and approval of candidates. Even in these cases, workers and NGOs expressed concern about the sustainability of elections and the knowledge and capacity of elected union officials who often lacked collective bargaining skills.

Despite provisions for collective consultation related to common areas of dispute such as wages, hours, days off, and benefits, noncompliance was common. Instead, tactics used by management included forcing employees to sign blank contracts and failing to provide workers a copy of their contract.

There continued to be reports of workers throughout the country engaging in strikes, work stoppages, and other protest actions. Strikes also occurred in an increasingly broad range of sectors. While many strikes occurred in manufacturing, reports of strikes increased in the transport, sanitation, and service industries, also generally over issues of wages. Although the government restricted the release of figures for the number of strikes and protests each year, the frequency of “spontaneous” strikes remained high, especially in Guangdong and other areas with developed labor markets and large pools of sophisticated, rights-conscious workers. Local government responses to strikes varied even within jurisdictions, with authorities sometimes showing tolerance for strikes while at other times treating worker protests, or even disseminating information about protests, illegal. During a large-scale strike at a shoe factory in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, in April, for example, public security officials detained two employees at a Guangdong-based labor rights NGO (see section 2) who had been providing advice to the workers. Labor NGOs often provided information, training, and legal support to workers on collective bargaining and dispute resolution.

In May 2013 informally elected workers’ representatives at a Shenzhen furniture factory led a protest against their employers over the company’s refusal to discuss compensation for a planned relocation. Authorities detained worker leader Wu Guijun after protracted strikes and petitions were submitted to the city government to intervene in fruitless negotiations. According to independent labor organizations, Wu was formally charged with “assembling a crowd to disturb social order” in September 2013, but later reports indicated that the procurator refused to accept the charges due to lack of evidence and sent the case back to the public security officials for further investigation. After three court hearings and more than a year in detention, Wu was released on bail in May 2014, and the Shenzhen procurator dropped charges against him in June.

Other labor activists detained in previous years reportedly remained in detention at year’s end, including Chen Yong, Kong Youping, Liu Jian, Liu Jianjun, Memet Turghun Abdulla, Wang Miaogen, Xing Shiku, Zhou Decai, Zhu Chengzhi, and Zhu Fangming.

/r/worldnews Thread Parent Link - china.org.cn