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CLB Calls for the Immediate Release of Political Activist Wang Guilan

CLB condemns the sentencing of Wang Guilan to re-education through labour on the spurious and arbitrary charge of “disturbing social order” during the Olympic Games, and calls for her immediate release. Photo of the Birds Nest by DonDomingo@flicker.com

Founder of Independent Trade Union Released from Prison

Hu Shigen (胡石根), one of China’s foremost labour rights and pro-democracy activists, has finally been freed from prison after serving 16 years of a 20-year sentence for attempting to form an independent trade union and political party in the early 1990s. He was released from Beijing No. 2 Prison on 26 August 2008.

Wal-Mart to sign collective contracts at all China stores

Global retail giant Wal-Mart plans to sign collective labour contracts at all of its more than one hundred outlets in China by the end of September, according to the official Chinese media. Photo by h.dot@flickr.com

Zhang Shanguang released

Labour activist Zhang Shanguan was quietly released from prison on the evening of 19 July 2008, two days before his scheduled release date, according to the Boxun news network. However, there has been no official confirmation of his release.
 
Zhang was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in 1998 after founding a labour rights support group, the Association to Protect the Rights and Interests of Laid-Off Workers, in his home province of Hunan.

New Migrant Worker Department faces a daunting task

Beijing has set up a new central government department designed to promote and defend the interests of China’s more than 130 million migrant workers. However, the Department of Migrant Workers’ Affairs will face an uphill task. Photo by onekell @ flickr.com

Wal-Mart signs its first collective wage agreement with employees in China

Retail giant Wal-Mart has signed a collective labour agreement with the trade union at one of its stores in China. The landmark agreement at the Shenyang store in northeastern Liaoning province covers employee remuneration, annual pay rises, over-time, paid vacations and social security payments.

IBM case highlights work pressures in China’s hi-tech industries

The 18 June award of over 57,000 yuan in compensation to an employee unfairly dismissed from computer giant IBM’s Shanghai subsidiary because of his medical condition is a landmark ruling in China.
 
Not only is it the first time a labour dispute arbitration committee (LDAC) has ruled in an employment discrimination case based on depression, but the publicity generated because of the high-profile defendant has highlighted the issue of mental illness and the intense pressure felt by many employees in China’s hi-tech industries.

The Need for Legal Muscle to enforce China's Collective Labour Contracts

The lack of legal compulsion and the impotence of many enterprise level trade unions are making the implementation of the Chinese government's collective wage consultation system an uphill struggle, union officials in the central city of Luoyang have conceded. Photo by Saad Akhtar@flickr.com

Trade Union official says China is just one step away from the right to strike

Workers in China do not have the constitutional right to strike. Yet, every day in the Pearl River Delta alone there is at least one major strike involving over a thousand employees and dozens of smaller strikes and stoppages. Photograph by Sebi

Shenzhen minimum wage reaches 1,000 yuan per month

Inflationary pressure has forced Shenzhen to raise the minimum wage, already the highest in China, by 20 percent to the unprecedented level of 1,000 yuan a month. However, simply raising the minimum wage will not be enough to guarantee workers even a basic standard of living.
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