Settling labor disputes fairly and promptly

Settling labor disputes through mediation and arbitration is a remedial system with Chinese characteristics for safeguarding legitimate rights and interests of employees. To guarantee fairness and transparency in dealing with labor dispute cases, arbitration commissions are composed of three parties, namely, the representatives of appropriate departments of the government, trade unions and employers. By the end of 2009, China had 33,000 arbitrators in some 4,800 arbitration organizations.

The method of mediation and arbitration in settling labor disputes adheres to the principle of fairness, encourages parties in dispute to settle their disputes properly through consultations and mediation, and protects the legitimate rights and interests of parties concerned. In 2009 labor dispute arbitration organizations at various levels nation-wide handled 875,000 cases. Some 684,000 cases were accepted for arbitration, a decrease of 1.3 percent compared to the previous year. The cases involved 1.017 million workers, a decrease of 16.3 percent compared to the previous year. According to Chinese law, parties that disagree with labor dispute arbitration award may institute proceedings to the people's courts. In 2009 people's courts at various levels completed 317,000 labor dispute cases, and successfully protected the legitimate rights and interests of the parties in dispute.

Enhancing labor security supervision

Law enforcement as regards labor security supervision is an important way to protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers. Labor security supervision organizations are mainly responsible for publicizing laws and regulations concerning labor security, accepting and handling workers' complaints and reports, and supervising employers' observance of the relevant laws. By the end of 2009, China had established 3,291 labor security supervision organizations staffed by a total of 23,000 supervisors.

In recent years, China's labor security supervision organizations have launched campaigns to investigate breaches of laws and regulations related to labor security, and strengthened supervision on and timely handled major law-breach cases with serious social impacts. The supervision of law enforcement protects workers' rights in career introduction, labor contract signing, working hours, salary payment, social insurance and special labor protection. In 2009 China's labor security supervision organizations inspected 1.751 million employers, involving 90.298 million workers; they examined and dealt with 439,000 cases of violation of labor security laws, and ordered employers who failed to sign labor contracts with their employees to sign labor contracts with 10.737 million employees.

Since the beginning of 2009 the Chinese government has launched pilot projects of online labor security supervision and management in 60 cities so as to carry out comprehensive and dynamic supervision of employers for labor dispute prevention and timely intervention. Now, with the pilot projects working well, the new method will soon be applied nationwide.