The headquarter of All-China Federation of Trade Union [file photo]

Authorities are taking steps to strengthen the role that trade unions play and address criticism they're a "rubber-stamp," amid concerns that mounting labor disputes could snowball into a major social crisis.

"By 2012, more than 90 percent of enterprises in China should have established trade unions," Wang Yupu, vice-chairperson of the All-China Federation of Trade Union (ACFTU), said at a meeting Monday, adding that 55.8 percent of all enterprises had unions in 2009.

Problems were found mainly in privately owned companies, which accounted for 80 percent of all enterprises, Wang noted.

Su Hainan, director of the Labor and Wage Institute at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, noted that the lack of trade unions in medium and small-sized enterprises is just one problem, and the more serious matter involves existing trade unions that perform practically no function.

"Amid the series of suicides at Foxconn Technology Group and the constant strikes at Honda Motor from May to July, workers did not resort to the trade unions as they are believed to represent the interests of employers, instead of employees," Su added.

ACFTU, led by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is now trying to confront the credibility issue. A regulation proposed by the organization in July stipulated that by next year, trade union staffers at industries across the country must be paid by senior trade unions, instead of by the employers.