Employment: Unions increase the pressure

December 08, 2009 | BY

clpstaff &clp articles

Companies in China have been under pressure to unionise for many years now, and the heat was significantly turned up on foreign enterprises when the ACFTU criticised them for refusing to allow their workers to join unions

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[This feature is part of The year ahead 2010]

Companies in China have been under pressure to unionise for many years now, and the heat was significantly turned up on foreign enterprises in the middle of 2008. At that time, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) very publically criticised foreign enterprises for refusing to allow their workers to join unions, and began to target Chinese subsidiaries of Fortune 500 companies.

In September 2008, the ACFTU released draft regulations on “democratic management of enterprises”. According to Pattie Walsh, DLA Piper's Asia regional head of employment, the regulations aim to provide for a uniform democratic management system through a system of “publicising” and the use of, among other things, an employee representative congress to supervise management and represent employees' rights within companies. The finalised regulations are expected to be promulgated soon.