class="en f13">Freedom of Association

All laborers doing physical or mental work in enterprises, public institutions and government organs within Chinese territory who earn their living primarily from wages shall have the right to participate in and form trade union organizations pursuant to the law, regardless of their nationalities, races, sexes, occupations, religious beliefs or educations. No organization or individual may hinder them from doing so or restrict them.

Many people are afraid of talking about freedom of association because of the political overtone of this term. In fact, freedom of association is, above all, a legal concept. Unfortunately, many comments and behaviors in our life that are related to freedom of association are not analyzed and treated as legal issues. In China, association is far from being a problem right now. Compared with foods and clothing, association seems to be too luxurious. Although freedom of association may be useful in solving problems related to foods and clothing, people tend to consider freedom of association an issue of higher level than survival.

The right of association include right to organize labor union, right to establish national labor union, and right to participate in international labor union. The rights to organize labor union and collective bargaining are basic rights specified in international human rights documents. The right to organize labor union includes not only the right to be exempted of any interruption or discrimination by employer, but also the right of union members not to be dismissed or retaliated. Freedom of association is the cornerstone of core labor standards, and has always been protected by ILO. Collective bargaining is the right to conclude labor contract by group of workers. In a broad sense, it also includes all other rights to promote collective bargaining, the right to strike, and rights to carry out collective actions in peaceful manner.

Employers must respect freedom of association and collective bargaining and allow workers to organize or participate in labor union freely. They shall not interrupt or limit such rights of workers, or punish or discriminate any worker who becomes a member of labor union. Examples of such punishments or discrimination are refusal of employment, threat to dismiss, limit promotion, limit salary increases, limit or require excessive overtime work, or transfer to a post with bad working conditions.

Employers should establish a mechanism that is able to settling labor disputes fairly and reasonably. They can establish a mediation board for settling labor disputes, with workers’ representatives serving as members of the board. The board should define and publish a procedure and methods for settling labor disputes, and assign persons to collect claims and appeals from workers.

In the event freedom of association is limited by law, for example in China, companies should help workers to realize such right in a similar way. Companies may provide necessary trainings to workers, explain to workers the nature, function, rights of labor union, election method, and channels for communication with the management. Companies may also provide appropriate facilities, funds, equipments, and working hour to workers’ representatives, so that they can perform their duties.

Procedures to Ensure Compliance in Your Facility

Employees should have the ability to approach management on issues of concern without fear of retribution. Various ways in which employees could approach management include trade unions, employee committees (grievance, safety, etc.), or employee selected representatives, regular meetings, etc.
Employers shall not use intimidation, unreasonable searches, police or military force to obstruct workers right to freedom of association.
Factory to use clearly defined and documented system for resolving disputes in the workplace, whether between co-workers or between workers and supervisors. Workers should have the ability to report problems to a person or committee other than a direct supervisor. This system should be communicated both verbally and in writing to workers.
Factory must adopt and communicate a non-retaliation policy that guarantees that workers who report on problems or abuses do not suffer negative consequences.
There should be representative(s) of the employees, who are freely selected and participate voluntarily and communicate with management on related issues. Employee representations should be representative of the plant population including workers.
There should be management representative(s) designated to interface and communicate with the employee representative(s) on related issues. Management representation should be the same personnel or same identified authority.
Meetings should be scheduled between management and employee representative(s) on a regular basis, at least quarterly. Meeting minutes should be on file.

Good Practices

Designate a person responsible for routinely verifying the effectiveness of the factory;s policies and procedures on freedom of association and rights to collective bargaining.
Managers and supervisors are held accountable for violation of facilities policy on freedom of association and rights to collective bargaining.
Continuously trains managers and supervisors on the facilities policy on freedom of association and rights to collective bargaining.
Adopted a grievance system for factory worker feedback for the factory's policy on freedom of association and rights to collective bargaining.
Management monitors subcontractors to ensure compliance with this standard.