The official Communist Party-controlled trade union in Beijing has scored a coup in its collective bargaining campaign against foreign-invested enterprises, according to reports from Chinese state media.
The Beijing municipal federation of trade unions has convinced more than 100 foreign companies in the Chinese capital to pay their employees no less than 1.5 times the city’s statutory minimum wage of Rmb1,160 ($177).
Foreign companies that have agreed to the wage rule include Pizza Hut, Siemens, Nestlé and many others but companies like Carrefour and Wal-Mart, which employ large numbers of low-wage workers, have not participated in the negotiations and are not affected by the new rule.
In their eagerness to please the city government, which has the power to make doing business here very difficult, it seems foreign companies that already pay relatively high wages have decided this is a smart concession to make.
But with statutory minimum wages rising across the country at around 20 per cent a year at the moment and expectations this will continue, they may feel differently in a year or two.
“As part of the government’s wealth redistribution plan it is raising minimum wages across the board,” said Ren Xianfang, an analyst at IHS Global Insight. “For foreign companies they will probably come under even greater wage pressures than domestic companies because the government seems to think they should pay more.”
China does not allow independent labour unions and the official unions are essentially branches of the Communist Party. In recent years, the government has pushed hard to expand the official union presence inside foreign-invested companies, some of which have resisted.
Now that the capital has set an example, analysts believe other Chinese cities with large foreign business communities, such as Shanghai and Shenzhen, will soon follow suit and introduce similar wage bargaining with foreign companies. –Jamil Anderlini, http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/04/07/beijing-wins-pay-round-with-mncs/
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
“Safety and health at work every day!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government
(NUG) of Myanmar.
Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
March – Women’s Role in History Month
April – Month of Planet Earth
Weekly Observances:
Last Week of March: Protection and Gender Fair Treatment of the Girl Child Week
Last Week of April – World Immunization Week
Daily Observances:
Mar 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transallantic Slave Trade
Mar 27– Earth Hour
Apr 21 – Civil Service Day
Apr 22 – World Earth Day
Apr 28 – World Day for Safety and Health at Work
