China - Employers and public authorities interfered in concluding collective agreements (2013)

Labour strikes and workers’ requests for bargaining are treated as social stability and public security issues by the local governments. The Trade Union Law also obliges the only trade union, the ACFTU to restore production and order when a stoppage of work occurs. In the absence of a national law on strikes and collective bargaining, guidelines have been issued by local governments and labour bureaus to form stability committees composed of government representatives, the branch committees of the Chinese Communist Party and the federation of trade unions to step in and resume work on the shopfloor. The standards of these mediation guidelines are uneven enabling the local government officers to interfere in the negotiation and bargaining process between workers and employers. The labour authority and trade union federations are requested to persuade strikers to return to work while the mediation is going on, and to take part in the negotiation and settlement.