“The Motives behind revising the Implementing Regulations for the Trade Union Law”

In this short article, translated by IHLO, the Nanfang Ribao (Southern Daily) looks at the reasoning behind new revised regulations in Shenzhen for the implementation of the trade union law. The last revision to the Shenzhen regulations were in 2003 while the national Trade Union law itself was last revised in 2001.

The article essentially outlines the major reforms introduced by the local ACFTU in recent years to cope with declining membership and the fact that – even according to officials – “basic level unions have not been doing a good job in defending workers' rights”. The reforms mentioned include the election of officials, restrictions on company management acting as union chairs and a renewed push on collective consultations. The official here makes it clear that he is talking about collective negotiation and not simple ‘consultation’. In itself this is also a step forward.

For more on the laws in Shenzhen and recent reforms

Many Unions but few members

The article is interesting because it touches upon the chasm between the well publicized number of trade unions established in Shenzhen and the reality of low union membership – 3 million official members out of a working population of 8 million gives a percentage membership of around 30 percent. When officials have set a figure of at least 80% unionization throughout China (both private and state) the discrepancy between so called ‘unionisation’ and actual membership is quite glaring - eighty percent union membership would be at least double the current figures.

The recruitment campaign launched in 1998 which sees annual targets for new membership issued each year remains very much one based on the rise of paper unions. The legal procedure for registering a union office in an enterprise can be completed without trade union officials even entering the workplace, and branches can be set up in some enterprises simply by carrying out administrative procedures. Indeed a variety of methods is used to push enterprises into forming a union – paper or not. These include public naming and shaming in official media or government pronouncements,  weekly visits by ACFTU personal followed by other state personnel and threats of financial repercussions.  The ACFTU has also been increasingly cooperating with local tax bureaus and other government administrative bodies to process union dues from the company payroll – even when and where there is no actual union the dues may be deducted as a way of encouraging firms to set up an official union.

See IHLO: ACFTU and the Tax department – working together to collect “union” dues for an example

In contrast, a firm which agrees to allow the ACFTU to set up a branch is given a series of incentives, including the simple fact that by establishing an ACFTU union, workers are given the opportunity to organize their own. The company is often allowed the ability to influence the choice of the first chair of the union, obtains a ‘holiday’ period for the payment of union dues (or the agreement to exclude certain salaries from the final payroll calculations) and other benefits. 

“The Motives behind revising the Implementing Regulations for the Trade Union Law”

Nanfang Daily, 31 July 2008

Shenzhen first issued implementing regulations for the Trade Union Law in 1993 and a revised version in 2003. And now, five years later, another revised version has been issued. The Shenzhen municipal ACFTU pointed out that over the past few years, Shenzhen's social structure, social organizations' structure and allocation of social interests, have undergone massive changes. There are many new issues in the coordination of labour relations. The most essential ones are the “number of unions being built while the number of new union members is not high”. Also, “basic level unions have not been doing a good job in defending workers' rights”.

By December 2006, there were 33,808 basic level unions, with a little more than three million members in Shenzhen, which is unimpressive for a city with 120,000 enterprises and more than eight million workers.

“In the revision this time, we introduced many 'advanced' and 'adventurous' breakthroughs, in terms of union organizing, union chairperson's election and dismissal, union's role and the start of collective bargaining,” said Zhang Youquan, the legal department head of the Shenzhen municipal ACFTU. “The format of collective bargaining has existed in Shenzhen more than ten years. But it hasn't been written down in laws and regulations.

“We used to use the term 'equal consultation'. But we believe the term 'collective consultation', a fixed legal term, would better express the power play between workers and employers. They are against each other, have bigger conflicts, not simple consultation.”

Zhang commented that it was now very common for a trade union official or chairperson, to be at the same time the enterprise vice-manager or head of the personnel department. “Such an identity would hinder their role at the union; they can't completely represent workers' interests. We saw that in reality... they may even screen out, turn off workers' demands.” Zhang further said unions which had such a problem would be given one year to correct it (however the one year correction time is not mentioned in the Methods).

Article 51, which suggests the upper ACFTU would publicly denounce unlawful enterprises, was also something new. Zhang said such a measure would, in fact, give the district and city-level ACFTU a lot of pressure, because they would need to deal with media or send directly a statement to condemn the enterprise. “It would cost those bad companies their reputation in society and also in business circles.”

November 2008
IHLO