Snapshot of Establishing a Harmonious Collective Negotiation Mechanism Salon
The salon entitled Establishing a Harmonious Collective Negotiation Mechanism on Friday April 29th hosted by BSR and CTI, made a grant success. Participants included the Guangdong Human Resource Management and Social Insurance Bureau, Guangdong Federation Trade Union, and worker collective negotiation representatives. Over 50 brands and suppliers including as Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Dell, PVH, Timberland, Pentland, Marks & Spencer, Jabil, and TAL also took part to present their views and interest with regards to collective negotiation.
Below are the key points from government and labor unions, labor experts and worker collective negotiation representatives.
Perspectives from Governmentand Federation of Trade Unions:
- Status of Collective Negotiation Mechanisms in Guangdong
According to statistics shown by the labor government and trade union federation, collective contracts have been raised from over six hundred thousand to more than one million and two hundred thousand, with the total amount of contracts rising from over ninety millions to more than a hundred sixty million during 2005 to 2009. Meanwhile, the amount of labor strikes and mass participation incidents caused by labor conditions and wage disputes have grown from thirty thousands to eighty thousands during year 2005 to 2010. By the end of 2010 in Guangdong province, of large and medium-sized companies that had already established labor unions, 70.51% of companies have established a collective wage negotiation system. The tripartite coordination mechanism for labor relations and company professional wage commissions has been gradually built up together with collective wages negotiation practitioners.
- Existing Problems and Analysis
2.1 Problems for companies running collective wages negotiation systems
Though great progress has been made on collective wages negotiation systems, there are still some obvious existing problems. First, some enterprises have only set up collective negotiation systems, but not brought the systems into full play. Secondly, there is no clear point or contents for negotiation. Thirdly, records for collective contracts are not properly reported to relevant government.
2.2 Problems for companies who have not created collective wages negotiation systems
Although an increasing number of companies are running collective wages negotiation systems, there are still a proportion of companies that are reluctant or unwilling to build up collective negotiation systems. Some companies, especially for private-funded companies, still have no labor unions or worker representatives and thus are reluctant to negotiate. Some workers have no ideas how to negotiate with companies due to insufficient professional knowledge of laws and regulations.
- Directions and Focus for This Year
Representatives from Guangdong Human Resource Management and Social Insurance Bureau stated that the Guangdong government will focus on guidance for collective negotiation for different industries, positions and areas. Furthermore, the government plans to increase the number of collective wages negotiation practitioners and provide more legal and case study training. The Guangdong government will also try to work out preferential policies for businesses that use collective bargaining, such as giving priority to loans or tax reduction in some areas.
Views and Voices from LaborExperts:
Difference between Collective Negotiation and Collective Bargaining
According to experts: ‘collective negotiation’ is different from ‘collective bargaining.’ ‘Collective negotiation’ is led by the government with labor union implementation under current law, whereas collective bargaining’ is led by workers themselves. 2010’s Honda strike shows that the worker rights empowerment is the success of collective bargaining. Thus, to avoid worker activities such as strikes, labor unions should be actually and actively involved in giving guidance to workers in the course of collective negotiation.
Real Case: Viewpoint from a worker representative
“Our factory is basically following the requirements from government, but when brands come to audit, our boss will give us some sample answers, which makes us feel as though we are being cheated. Workers are looking to negotiate with factories, but our boss is reluctant to do so and thus we have to turn to brands for help. When brands understood the real situation of the factory, the brands help us to set up labor unions, however, when conducting negotiation, worker representatives are not able to be involved, so as a worker representative, in my opinion, as long as workers are given proper rights for grievance under existing regulations, collective negotiation can be better and actually utilized. When our rights for appeal are not able to achieve, I am afraid we have to resort to brands or media to help.”
