Some private and foreign companies are trying to prevent their employees from establishing trade unions, unionists said this week.

"Parts of such companies, especially branch operations of transnational companies, refuse to set up trade unions,'' official Guo Wencai told China Daily.

Guo, general director of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU)'s Department of Grass-roots Trade Union Establishment, made the remarks while attending the ACFTU's 14th National Congress in Beijing.

The latest ACFTU statistics indicate that China has 400,000 foreign companies but only one-fifth have set up trade unions. Trade unions operate in about 40 per cent of 2 million private enterprises.

The ACFTU said employers in non-unionized companies did not want their staff in unions mainly because they feared possible cost increases.

"If unions are set up, employees have to create full-time positions for union leaders,'' Shi Liya, union chairwoman at a Jiangsu-based medicine factory, told China Daily. "So they don't want to do it.''

Wang Ying, division director of Guo's department, said, "Even so, we are trying our best to bring more employees under the umbrella of trade unions.''

Wang said the US-based retailer Wal-Mart was one of the global firms that had refused to establish unions among its Chinese branch operations.

"We've made increased efforts to change this situation for several years but failed,'' said Wang.

Sources at Wal-Mart's Chinese headquarters in South China's Shenzhen confirmed its stores in several Chinese cities had no trade unions. But they said the company had no trade unions in any of its worldwide operations.

Wang said some owners of foreign-funded enterprises are abiding by China's laws and regulations and encouraging their employees to join unions.

One joint-venture that has set a good example is Suzhou Capsule, based in East China's Jiangsu Province.

Its union chairwoman Shi Liya said the company, one of the earliest joint ventures in China, organized a trade union for its workforce in 1988.

"As a trade union, protecting the legal rights of employees is our priority,'' she said.

In recent years, Shi has tried to obtain full compensation for several employees she claims the company unfairly fired.

Shi also said changes to company ownership in China have caused concern among trade unions trying to establish themselves in private and foreign companies.

"During the 1980s, we only had joint ventures and, in most cases, the State-owned investors owned the majority of the shares,'' said Shi. "It was easy for us to set up trade unions.''

But as China gradually opened its market further, more and more foreigner-owned and private enterprises mushroomed in China.

"Even though we have trade union laws in place, governments at various levels have paid attention to attracting capital, not to building unions,'' said Shi.

Guan Binfeng, another ACFTU division director, said employees' rights were often infringed in foreign and private companies that had no trade unions.

"This often takes place in companies in coastal areas,'' said Guan.

A survey conducted in China's economic powerhouse Guangdong suggests that 85 per cent of migrant workers in the province -- believed to number 26 million -- have to work 10 to 14 hours every day. And nearly half have to work every day of the week, the study by the provincial department of labour and security found.

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