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Introduction.................................................................................................2 I. Laws and policies on the “equal consultation and collective contracts” system ........................................................................................3 II. Promoting the collective contracts system.............................................5 III. The collective consultation process and the various types of collective contracts ......................................................................................................7 1. The collective consultation process ....................................................................8 2. The various types of collective contracts............................................................9 IV. The pressing need for collective contracts as a means of reducing tensions between labour and management ...............................................11 V. Corporate social responsibility and collective contracts .....................14 Conclusion ................................................................................................16 Appendix. The development of the collective contracts system in China… .....................................................................................................18 A list of CLB's research reports................................................................20 1
Introduction Collective contracts, directly negotiated between representatives of labour and management, via a process of collective bargaining, are a well-established and globally recognized means of addressing workers’ demands and ensuring healthy labour relations. The collective contract system is a cooperative and consensual mechanism that can help improve working conditions, as well as communication and understanding between labour and management. Such a system is urgently needed in China today. Violations of workers’ rights are widespread and increasingly commonplace, and over the last decade there has been a commensurate rise in the number of workers’ protests, to the extent that labour disputes are now the single most significant cause of social unrest in the country. China Labour Bulletin believes the collective contract system, if implemented correctly with genuine workers’ representation, can act as a powerful tool to improve workers’ lives and reduce the evident tensions between labour and management in China today. Indeed, the new Labour Contract Law, which comes into effect on 1 January, although limited in scope, should provide a favourable environment and stimulus to the future development of collective contracts. Collective contracts were used in the early days of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), but they gradually disappeared with the establishment of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the late 1950s. Collective contracts were deemed unnecessary in SOEs because the Communist Party controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) acted as a “bridge” between workers and management that could in theory mediate any disputes. In reality, the ACFTU simply relayed management dictates to the workers. With the introduction of economic reforms in the 1980s, and the growth of the private sector, the ACFTU’s previously solid enterprise-level powerbase began to erode. By the early 1990s, the ACFTU was a shadow of its former self, and its leaders sought to use the collective contract provisions in the PRC’s Trade Union Law (1992) and Labour Law (1994) as a means of regaining some of the prestige and influence the union had lost. Both laws gave trade unions the right to engage in collective consultations with management, and in the mid-1990s the government, in conjunction with the ACFTU, launched a major drive to implement collective contracts in the SOE sector. At the turn of the century, this drive was extended to the rapidly growing private sector as well. The collective contract system has been in place for over a decade now, but, because of the continued lack of genuine collective bargaining, collective contracts have so far failed to make a significant impact on labour-management relations in China. China’s collective contract system is more formally known as the “equal 2
Page 1: Research Report No.4 Breaking the I
Page 5 and 6: and safety issues. (For more inform
Page 7 and 8: without input from government labou
Page 9 and 10: areas with high concentrations of s
Page 11 and 12: target) and 37.2 million workers (a
Page 13 and 14: generally ignored. As a result, the
Page 15 and 16: workers at a dozen companies went o
Page 17 and 18: and they are meant to be promoted a
Page 19 and 20: Appendix. The development of the co
Page 21 and 22: China Labour Bulletin’s research

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