Vigilance on labour contracts urged
Make foreign firms liable for rights of workers: activist
Chan Siu-sin
South China Morning Post
16 December 2005
Foreign multinationals should require their mainland partners to sign collective employment contracts with workers to give Chinese workers greater legal protection, a Hong Kong-based labour group suggested yesterday.
Han Dongfang, director of the China Labour Bulletin, said the current use of "codes of conduct" by multinationals to regulate their mainland partners was just a "cat-and-mouse game".
He said although the multinationals checked on their mainland partners through independent monitors, employers often coach workers on the factory floor in how to answer the monitors' questions.
"What we want is to move from a code of conduct - a moral responsibility - to a legal responsibility," Mr Han said.
The activist group urged multinationals to pressure their mainland partners to sign collective contracts negotiated with representatives chosen by the workers or representatives from the official All-China Federation of Trade Unions.
Collective employment contracts cover issues such as wages, welfare, work hours, occupational hazards, safety and working conditions.
Mr Han said mainland factories that violated the multinationals' codes of conduct could not be punished by law but collective contracts would be legally binding.
Disputes over implementation of the contracts could be subject to arbitration or be adjudicated by courts.
"[With collective contracts], workers can negotiate and discuss the terms of employment and participate in the monitoring process," Mr Han said. "But in a cat-and-mouse game, everybody loses."
According to the union federation, 98 million workers on the mainland were covered by collective contracts with their employers by the end of last year. However, the union figure did not include a breakdown of the employers and it was not clear how many were suppliers to foreign multinationals.
Mr Han said he was not sure of the accuracy of the figure and how collective contracts were signed but said mainland workers would have better legal cover if multinationals took the initiative to promote collective contracts.