China's trade unions should do a better job protecting
employees' rights as compulsory overtime and unreasonably low pay
are rife in companies all over the country, an on-line survey has
revealed.
According to the survey published on Monday by China's Youth
Daily after polling 4,747 people, 71.6 percent of the
respondents believed China's trade unions had not fully carried out
its tasks.
"There's no doubt China's unions face massive challenges in
playing an active role to protect employees' rights," the survey
concluded.
The survey was published following a landmark decision by
Wal-Mart Stories Inc. last week to set up trade unions in its
outlets all over China in collaboration with the All-China
Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) - China's union authority.
The federation has more than 1.17 million grass-roots trade
unions across the country. An ACFTU official disclosed that in the
first six months of this year, almost 9 million Chinese had joined
trade unions and over 80,000 trade unions had been set up.
The establishment of trade unions is necessary according to most
of the respondents, the survey said. Without them, companies would
force their employees to agree with company decisions regardless of
their wishes, it said.
"It is very easy to pick out an example in China of how an
employee's rights are infringed upon by his employer," the paper
said. "Wages are delayed, compensation is difficult to get for
work-related illness, and employees are usually sacked for
disagreeing over a company's policies on overtime working or wage
distribution."
More than half of the employees working overtime are not willing
to do so, the paper said, citing another survey. "Though most firms
say there is no overtime, the employees are usually assigned
overwhelming workloads, which results in them staying late."
In total, 86.7 percent of the respondents considered the need
for trade union help is at its greatest in private firms, followed
by foreign firms with 69.2 percent, the survey found.
Being the world's largest retailer with 1.6 million employees in
16 countries and regions, Wal-Mart has traditionally refused to
allow trade unions in its outlets, incurring criticism from human
rights and labor organizations.
A statement released by Wal-Mart last week said it would set up
trade unions in all its outlets across China. At present, trade
unions have been set up in cities like Nanjing, Quanzhou, Shenzhen,
and Shanghai.
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2006)