China - Sixteen agency workers employed at Changsha GACC-Johnson (2013)

Sixteen agency workers employed at Changsha GACC-Johnson Controls Interiors Systems were dismissed for leading a strike. About 90 per cent of the employees of the Hunan based auto parts company, Changsha GACC-Johnson Controls Interiors Systems Co. Ltd., are agency workers. The district federation of trade union claims that 80 per cent of the agency workers are unionised. However, those unions were formed at the agencies at the request of the government rather than by the agency workers at the place of work. Agency workers are therefore not covered by a collective agreement at their workplace. Therefore, they started a strike on 7 January 2014 demanding an increase in their basic salary. Representatives from the district government, public security, the labour bureau and the district trade union federation stepped in to press the strikers return to work. On the same day, the management terminated the service of sixteen leading strikers and requested the agency company to sack them claiming they were provoking the strike and violated the company rules. Other strikers were promised bonuses and returned to work on 11 January 2014.