News
Labor disputes skyrocket in Beijing
By Wang Wen (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-10 11:27
About 80,000 workers had been involved in disputes with their employers by the end of November, double the number of last year, a senior official of the Beijing trade union said.
The city's arbitration committee has received more than 70,000 labor disputes cases this year, and many involved more than one employee.
There were 26,000 disputes during the same period in 2007 and 49,000 in 2008, said Zhang Hengshun, director of law department of Beijing municipal federation of trade union.
The most important reason behind the drastic increase is that arbitration has been free of charges since May 1, 2008, when the Law on Mediation and Arbitration of Labor Disputes took effect, Zhang said.
"The payment stopped some employees who wanted to apply for arbitration before the law took effect," Wang Fang, a lawyer from Beijing Zhicheng law firm.
Formerly, employees were charged 300 yuan for arbitration. Free arbitration has encouraged more employees to choose legal channels to resolve their labor disputes, Wang said.
She said that the legal action launched in October, would have to wait until August next year for a result.
The number of arbitration cases in Chaoyang, Haidian and Fengtai districts is more than other districts in Beijing.
Arbitration is the first step to resolve labor dispute and employees or employers can file lawsuits if they do not agree with the results.
Mediation is the best way to reduce the arbitration cases and shorten the waiting list, but the effect is not very good, Wang said, because some employers agree to mediation in order to exhaust employees rather than seeking a solution.
Labor dispute cases accepted and heard by Beijing courts increased almost twice on the number last year, a report released by the Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court said yesterday.
The court accepted and heard 4,506 labor dispute cases till Nov 10 this year, which is 180 percent what it was in 2008, it said.
About 50 percent of the cases were related to overtime rates and payment, the court said.
