[By Liu Rui/Global Times]

Ordinary workers' wages have not kept up with China's rapid growth. But recently, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has begun heavily promoting collective bargaining. In January this year, ACFTU issued three guidance documents, which propose that 80 percent of the enterprises with trade union organizations should set up a system of collective bargaining by the end of 2013.

According to statistics from the ACFTU, by September 2010, over 1.1 million enterprises had signed collective contracts for wages.

The number of enterprises dealing with collective bargaining has grown by 10 percent or more for four years in a row. But although collective bargaining has made headway, there are still some problems.

To begin with, collective bargaining is often misunderstood. Some local governments one-sidedly think that collective bargaining will weaken their labor cost advantage and influence the investment environment, so they do not give sufficient support to the practice.

Some business owners hold that wages are up to employers and believe they have no obligation to participate in collective bargaining, so they are neither active nor cooperative in such programs.

There are many staff who are unaware of their right to collective bargaining and they doubt whether business owners would bargain with them equally.

These misunderstandings are a great source of resistance in implementing collective bargaining.

Although the existing law in China has clear rules on collective bargaining, it leaves too much space to specific operations. Rules that bring management into line have not yet been issued, so the penalties for businesses that refuse to participate in collective bargaining are not backed up by law.