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/
March –
IT’S WOMEN’S MONTH!
“Respect and support women
every day of the year/s!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the recommendations of the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry
against serious violations of protocols of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association.
Accept the National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
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Monthly Observances:
Women’s Role in History Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 1: Environmental Week;
Women’s Week
Week 3: Philippine Industry and “
Made-in-the-Philippines Products Week
Last Week: Protection and Gender-Fair Treatment
of the Girl Child Week
Daily Observances:
March 8: Women’s Rights and
International Peace Day;
National Women’s Day
March 4: Employee Appreciation Day
March 15: World Consumer Rights Day
March 18: Global Recycling Day
March 21: International Day for the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination
March 23: International Day for the Right to the Truth
Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations
and for the Dignity of Victims
March 25: International Day of Remembrance of the
Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
March 27: Earth Hour
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