Zhang Jianguo: Collective Bargaining Will Not Affect The Development Of Enterprises.

Collective bargaining is not the wishful thinking of trade unions. It needs to solve two problems, one is the understanding of collective bargaining, and the two is how to form the resultant force of collective efforts.

All China

So what is the current state of labor relations? Where is the root cause of the more intense contradictions? How to prevent and resolve it systematically? What is the most important problem that the collective consultation mechanism should play in its role? The financial and economic weekly interviewed Zhang Jianguo, the Minister of collective contract of the all China Federation of trade unions.

Labor conflicts need institutionalized solutions

Finance and economics weekly: how do you view the current labor relations conflict?

Zhang Jianguo: to be practical and realistic, China has entered a high and frequent conflict of labor relations, mainly due to the unbalanced distribution of interests in the field of labor relations.

This imbalance is mainly reflected in the following aspects: first, some workers have low income, long working hours and poor working conditions; two, the channels of workers' appeals are not smooth; three, there is a lack of scientific and reasonable interest coordination mechanism, and the long-term accumulation of labor relations conflicts can not be resolved in a timely and effective manner.

In 2009, when the NPC conducted the law enforcement inspection of trade union law, it found that three types of labor dispute cases, including labor remuneration, social insurance and welfare, compensation for economic compensation, accounted for 79.21% of the total number of labor disputes.

In recent years, some enterprises have experienced collective downtime, most of which are caused by wage distribution.

It can be said that under the premise that the balance of interests of the two sides of labor relations is seriously tilted, any small frictional contradictions between the two sides of labor relations will be upgraded at any time by the catalyst of the imbalance mentality of the laborers.

Finance and economics weekly:

Zhang Jianguo: now that we recognize the inevitable differentiation of interests under the conditions of market economy, the contradiction of labor relations is inevitable. Only by establishing rules can we provide a systematic way to prevent and resolve conflicts of labor relations, so that these conflicts can be accommodated in the institutional context and institutionalized.

The practice of western developed market economy countries has proved that collective bargaining can prevent and resolve conflicts by balancing the interests of both sides of labor relations.

Under the condition of market economy, laborers are in a natural weak position in labor relations. They lack the necessary means of restriction to the capitalists. Although the absolute amount of workers' benefits distribution may increase with the increase of labor productivity, many times, the increase of workers' benefit distribution will be much lower than that of labor productivity. The absolute gap between labor and management in distribution is not only narrowed by the increase of labor productivity, but on the contrary, there is an expanding trend.

On the contrary, if a collective bargaining mechanism is established, the labor party can start the collective bargaining process once the distribution of interests between the two sides of labor relations is unreasonable, and resolve conflicts and conflicts of labor relations caused by unreasonable distribution of interests in a timely manner through consultation.

On the other hand, collective bargaining will also reduce the cost of social governance of the government.

In the absence of reasonable mediation mechanism of interest contradictions, the space and possibility of resolving contradictions in labor relations are getting smaller and smaller. A large number of internal contradictions of enterprises appear externalized, which originally belong to conflicts of interests between the two sides of labor relations, and often turn into contradictions between the workers and the government.

Local one-sided understanding

Finance and economics weekly: since the formal implementation of the labor law in 1995, China has established a collective bargaining mechanism for 16 years. Can the current labor relations conflict mean that the mechanism is not as good as it imagined?

Zhang Jianguo: No, on the contrary, there are frequent conflicts and conflicts in China's labor relations. It is the result of the collective bargaining mechanism that has not played a role or has not played enough role.

In fact, since the implementation of the labor law, trade unions at all levels in the country have actively promoted the construction of collective bargaining mechanism in accordance with the provisions of the law. They have done a lot of basic work, and have achieved some results.

However, we should also see that the role of collective bargaining is still limited.

The role of collective bargaining mechanism is not as good as expected. It is not the problem of the system itself, but many subjective and objective factors that restrict its function in the concrete implementation process.

On the one hand, the laws and regulations that support the collective bargaining work are obviously lagging behind the requirements of the development of the market economy for the construction of collective bargaining mechanism.

The relevant laws and regulations are not sound and complete, the level of legislation is low and the rigidity is not strong.

The provisions of the law on collective wage consultation are optional clauses, and at the same time, there is a lack of necessary penalties. Some enterprises, on the pretext of this, refuse to sign collective wage agreements, especially in some multinational corporations.

Two, some local officials worry that wage collective bargaining will scare investors away and affect the local investment environment.

Therefore, we do not attach importance to the collective wage consultation, do not support it, or even set up trade unions and wage collective bargaining as obstacles to local economic development.

The three is that some business managers unilaterally regard the "enterprise's independent decision" as an enterprise's unilateral decision on wages. It is considered that a wage increase should be made if the collective wage consultation is carried out. The increase in wages will lead to higher operating costs and affect the development and competitiveness of enterprises.

{page_break}

Subjectively, the phenomenon of "dare not talk" is common among trade union cadres.

Some trade union cadres have "identity embarrassment". They are both employees and representatives of workers. They have a lot of misgivings about collective bargaining when they represent their employees.

At the same time, some trade union cadres will not talk about it.

Because some trade union cadres do not have a thorough understanding of the operation of enterprises, and lack of experience and skills, the problem of "not talking" or talking about "incompetence" is also common.

In addition, information resources supporting wage collective bargaining are inadequate, and labor and capital occupy asymmetric information resources.

At present, there is still a big gap between the wage guidance line and the labor market guidance price related to the wage decision system under the market economy condition, which can not meet the needs of different positions, different jobs, different industries, and different employers to decide the labor quota and wage level.

Because of this, there is still a big gap between the role of the collective bargaining mechanism and the expectations of the staff and workers. There is still room for improvement.

Will not affect the development of enterprises

Finance and economics weekly: there is a view that collective bargaining and wage increase will affect the development of enterprises, and even lead to bankruptcy of some small businesses. How to treat this problem?

Zhang Jianguo: this kind of worry is unnecessary. In our country, the two sides of labor relations are contradictory unity and interest community. Only by promoting the development of enterprises, ensuring the increase of wage income and developing the rights and interests of workers can we have a solid material foundation. Only by safeguarding the rights and interests of workers can we play a good role in the initiative, creativity and sustainable development of workers. This is also the basic starting point and foothold for our collective wage negotiations.

On the one hand, trade unions at all levels have always adhered to the principle of "promoting the development of enterprises and safeguarding the rights and interests of workers" in carrying out collective wage negotiations. According to the requirements of the production and operation of enterprises and the wishes of employees, we should take into consideration the average wage level of the region and industry, the minimum wage standards issued by the local government, the wage guidance line, the guiding price of human resources market wages and the labor cost information of the industry, and the consumption price index of the urban residents in this region, so as to find out the interests of the two sides of the labor relationship, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

On the other hand, as we have mentioned before, the biggest problem of income distribution in the field of labor relations is that wages and benefits do not increase synchronously with the development of economy and society.

Wage collective bargaining is only to let laborers' wage income and welfare benefits grow synchronously with the development of economy and society, instead of putting forward the requirement that exceeds the level of economic and social development.

As has been pointed out, under the current circumstances, the rise in wages affects the development of enterprises is a "true lie".

Therefore, at present, collective wage negotiations should be considered through consultation to raise wages and salaries, share the fruits of enterprise development, and take into consideration the affordability of enterprises, so as to make them reasonable and orderly.

The two breakthrough is the key.

Finance and economics weekly: what is the key problem to be solved in pushing forward the establishment and improvement of collective bargaining mechanism? Where is the breakthrough point?

Zhang Jianguo: at present, there are two problems to be solved in promoting the establishment and improvement of collective bargaining mechanism. One is the understanding of collective bargaining, and the other is how to form the resultant force of collective efforts.

At present, there is a popular but incorrect view that collective negotiation is only the responsibility of the trade union. It is the contribution of the trade union to carry out the collective negotiation well.

Those who hold this view do not really understand the connotation of collective bargaining.

In fact, collective bargaining is not a wishful thinking and action taken by trade unions. It is not only a realistic requirement to change the unfair distribution of income, to prevent and resolve contradictions and conflicts in labor relations, but to set up and gradually improve the market economy. It is the inherent law requirement of developing market economy.

As long as we engage in a market economy, we can not avoid the contradiction of labor relations. We must establish a collective bargaining mechanism to balance the interests of the two sides of labor relations and prevent and resolve conflicts and conflicts in labor relations. Otherwise, the market economy is not perfect.

Clarifying this understanding, it is not difficult to understand that collective bargaining as an important means of coordinating labor relations under the conditions of market economy is also the common responsibility of all parties to coordinate labor relations. Only by coordinating the three parties of labor relations (government, employers' organizations and trade unions) closely cooperate, cooperate with each other and form a joint effort, can collective consultation work continue to make new breakthroughs.

Noun explanation -- collective wage negotiation

It refers to the collective agreement between the employing units and their employees in collective bargaining, in accordance with the provisions of laws, regulations and regulations, and signing collective written agreements on labor remuneration, working hours, rest and vacations, labor safety and health, vocational training, insurance benefits and so on.

In the past thirty years since reform and opening up, with the development of market economy, our government has seldom participated directly in the wage distribution and management of employees, mainly determined by enterprises.

Many bosses are strong in capital consciousness and weak in negotiation consciousness, and employees are not good at or afraid to negotiate.

Therefore, we must first give the legal norm -- set up a collective wage consultation system, so that the laborers can really get the wages equivalent to the labor force, which truly reflects the equality, democracy and legality of the process of determining the wages of the workers.