Collective labour disputes involving strikes

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress approved the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in February 2001. The fourth item of paragraph 1 of article 8 of the covenant above provides that employees have the right to strike, and such right must be performed pursuant to the laws of each country.

However, articles in the international covenants cannot be directly applied in China. Judicial authorities are not able to judge the lawfulness of strikes according to article 27 of the Trade Union Law either. It could be deemed that there are no laws or regulations regarding rights to strike in China.

Strike is one of the employees’ action models in collective labour disputes. Collective labour disputes refer to the generic term of occurrent collective rights and interests disputes. According to statistics from researchers, employees’ five action models during collective labour disputes are as follows: petition letters and visits; strikes; blocking the roads; blocking the factories and gathering; whistle-blowing or complaints.

Yvonne Lu is a counsel at MHP Law Firm