Guangdong province is drafting a new regulation stipulating the use of a "collective negotiation mechanism" to resolve labor disputes, a move to help ease tense labor relations in the booming province where a number of industrial strikes have occurred recently, state media reported. The negotiation mechanism should be used if more than 25% of all workers in a company request a pay hike, at which point its trade union should organize all staff for a democratic election of negotiators who represent the workers. The draft, which is called Democratic Management Rules of Enterprises, has sparked concern given that the rule, "workers should not resort to suspending work or other extreme behaviors to ask for pay raises before or during the procedure of negotiation", seems to imply a ban on striking. Kong Xianghong, who helped draft the law, said the rule means that workers should express rational requests first and try to resolve conflicts with employers via legal channels.
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