Labor law to help smooth salary talks

SHENZHEN: Zeng Qingming, the trade union chairman of Shenzhen Haida Decoration Co, is frequently involved in negotiations with management over pay rises for workers.

"Our industry is unique. The front-line workers, who account for at least 70 percent of the total manpower, frequently request salary increases in the wake of market changes," he told China Daily yesterday.

Zeng, who is director of Haida's customer service center and general manager of a subsidiary firm, was selected to chair the trade union in 2005. The company has 1,400 employees, with that number rising to more than 2,000 during peak seasons.

"Once we learn of a worker's request, we immediately organize a meeting between workers' representatives and the management," Zeng said.

The management will then conduct market research to gauge salary changes within the industry before making a decision.

Normally, the workers' requests are met.

However, the management turned down a request of about a 15 percent pay rise earlier this year, claiming it was far above the going market rate.

The negotiations lasted for more than 10 days, Zeng said.

"We managed to persuade the management to do more research on how difficult it is to recruit new employees. Meanwhile, we hoped the workers would consider the company's operational difficulties," he said.

"Both sides finally agreed on an increase of a little over 10 percent."

The process was aided by a salary negotiation system set up in 2002, which provides a level platform for employees to discuss their pay with management, Zeng said.

In 1993, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, was one of the pilot cities chosen to provide guidance to companies on setting up salary negotiation systems. According to figures from the labor department, the city now has 20,000 systems involving about 2.2 million employees.

The system has also gained legal status under the new Labor Contract Law, which is due to come into effect next year.

As part of their efforts to implement the Labor Contract Law, on Tuesday, Guangdong's department of labor and social security, its federation of trade unions and the provincial enterprises confederation jointly issued a document on introducing the salary negotiation system.

According to the document, by 2010, 60 percent of companies in the province that have a trade union will have implemented a salary negotiation system.

Chen Siyi, director of the salary division of the provincial labor department, said: "Employers that turn down the requirements of a collective salary negotiation raised by a trade union without good reason will be punished in line with the Trade Union Law or related regulations."

(China Daily 12/14/2007 page6)