EDIT: Apparently Yogthos posted this in a couple places but Sino only has 8k subs whereas this has 23k so I’ll leave it here.
I posted this in the news mega the other day but it deserves its own post. This law was signed in December but was apparently missed by most socialists. It goes into effect on July 1st.
Some snippets and explanations:
Article 17(2) of the Revised Company Law now stipulates that the assembly of employee representatives shall be the basic form of the democratic corporate governance system and that this shall apply to all companies. That means, regardless of whether a company is private or state-owned, whether it is a limited liability or a stock corporation. This is a notable development, as democratic corporate governance as a requirement for all companies is set out in national law for the first time.
A new organ is required in all companies called the Employee Assembly. It is democratic in nature.
An enterprise shall decide whether to convene an assembly of employee representatives or an assembly of all employees according to the Provisions on Democratic Governance of Enterprises, relevant local regulations, and subject to the number of its employees. In general, an enterprise with 100 or more employees shall convene an assembly of employee representatives; an enterprise with fewer than 100 employees should convene an assembly of all employees. An assembly of employee representatives (or an assembly of all employees, the “Employee Assembly”) is an organ for employees to exercise their power of democratic governance of the enterprise.
It is made up of all employees in companies below 100 members, or representatives are elected in companies above 100 members.
The trade union of an enterprise is the executive organ of its Employee Assembly and is responsible for the daily work of the Employee Assembly.
Cool
An Employee Assembly shall be convened at least once a year, and more than two-thirds of the employee representatives must be present at the plenary session of an Employee Assembly. Elections and votes on relevant matters at an Employee Assembly require a majority of all employee representatives.
Very cool
an Employee Assembly shall usually exercise the following powers and functions:
(I) Listening to the reports from the main persons responsible for the enterprise on the enterprise’s development planning, annual production and operation management, enterprise reform and formulation of major rules and regulations, employment issues, conclusion and implementation of labor contracts and collective contracts, production safety, and payment of social insurance premiums and housing provident funds; and making comments and suggestions thereon;
(II) Deliberating the rules and regulations or major proposals formulated, amended or adopted by the enterprise which may directly affect the immediate interests of its employees, such as remuneration, working hours, rest and vacation, occupational safety and health, insurance and welfare, employee training, labor discipline, and the management of labor quotas; and making comments and suggestions thereon;
(III) Deliberating and adopting the draft collective contracts, the plan for the use of the employees’ welfare fund drawn down in accordance with the relevant national regulations, the plan for adjusting the rate and timing of the payment of housing provident funds and social insurance premiums, the recommendation of candidates for model employees and other important matters;
(IV) Electing or dismissing employee directors and employee supervisors, electing employee representatives to meetings of creditors and creditors’ committees of the enterprise subject to bankruptcy proceedings in accordance with the law, and recommending or electing management personnel of the enterprise as authorized;
(V) Reviewing and monitoring the implementation of labor laws and regulations and labor rules by the enterprise, democratically evaluating the leaders of the enterprise, and making recommendations on rewards and punishments; and
(VI) Such other powers and functions as may be provided by laws or regulations.
Powers = Having access to all information of the company at every level, which is very important to worker benefits and ensuring labour law is being followed. Also the dismissing of directors, supervisors, managers, and electing representatives to meetings of creditors. In companies over 300 employees elected-members of the employee assembly must be elected to the board of directors.
China has made all companies worker-controlled. I would show this article to anyone that claims otherwise. This is worker democracy.
China is still a dictatorship of the proletariat.
“China has made all companies worker-controlled. I would show this article to anyone that claims otherwise. This is worker democracy.”
No. Don’t overhype yourself in idealist ways cause you want the CPC settle handedly now to introduce full worker control.
This law is a good step and would be great for counties like the US. However it isn’t worker control, far from it. Sadly.
It gives institutionalized organs für the workers, which convene rarely, but have mandates to convene, which is good. It is unclear what punishment is if they don’t. It is also unclear what powers they have, as for example the German model for large companies has a minority of board members be worker council elected (more or less). However within the board they are a minority. Here it is written, that the company shareholders don’t have a say in election of that portion. This means it isn’t worker control.
It is an option though to create instruments that might be formalized to express that companies worker’s wishes. This is course will have structural problems i.e. who is allowed to vote, talk, what is with internal conflicts, what is with competition between that company and others or the conflict between members of that company and those not employed in it?
For those questions the presented solution is the trade union of that company, which means a structured entity. It isn’t clear how exactly that is meant, as the conception of unions varies a lot. I doubt it is the US conception and think it might be more aligned with the bigger unions in China, but derived from their members of that company.
To further align the workers with a struggle that is not only focused on that company the membership within the communist party for some is quite relevant. This is what real socialist countries often encouraged. China has therefore, with it’s high membership count, a different condition than if the concept would’ve just been copied.
The obligations to coerce relevant people and information though is an important step to establish workers control and participation in the companies.
I welcome the spirit of the law as presented by OP, but urge you to not view laws that are stepping stones as the goal already. Details, implementation and practice matters.
There are reasons the law doesn’t go further so that it actually is (full) worker control. Capital is still relevant in China, both domestic (even though managed) and international (with mechanisms to reduce capital flight, but not well controlled). This law therefore does try to not scare International capital in practice too much. Talk of worker control (then making the most important decisions) is sadly still propaganda.
The law, if it really got obligations for all companies to create this assemblies would go further then the German law, as that exempts plenty of small companies that account for a majority of companies, even though not a majority of employees. Germany also has no real mechanism to hinder a medium sized company to make smaller ones to slip through.
This means that it mirrors the German law a bit and could include local exemptions i.e. special economic zones.
But none the less:
Current German laws with by having a worker’s council elected (sounds cooler than it is often, cause it dissipates anger a bit and makes wild organizing hard), which has the right to request management to talk and inform, but sadly no access to books. They can convene workers assemblies (paid assemblies of the whole employees) multiple times per year is necessary, but also has minimums occurrences required by law. There is too little punishment for hindering those established laws, as the German state is neoliberal in many aspects.
I encourage you to talk to experts of our side in labor relations and see what you can demand from that new law within your company. Also see what structural differences in terms of unions, membership, party membership, co existing laws and judicial system exist, as well as rights to strike, to healthcare and alike.
Within the US as within Germany democracy end at the gate to the workplace. To quote century old writers.