The Study On The Function Of The Union In The Labor Dispute

Under the background of rapid economic development in the market, the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, the diversification of employment and the reorganization of industrial structure under national policies have caused great impact on the labor relations of our country which was simple in the past. The labor relations is becoming more complex and more various, while the conflict between the employee and the employer gets worse. Because of the imbalance of strengths of two parties in the labor relation, the situation of violating the legal right of laborers gets worse, and then cause the mass events, which had a severe impact on the stability of the workforce and hampered the construction of harmonious society. But the existing "one arbitrament two litigation" system to deal with the labor dispute which is lengthy, cumbersome procedures and costly can not protect the workers'right effectively. In this context, government, society and workers have an urgent need that the union should represent the interests of workers and defend their rights. But in reality, unions are often in trouble as the voluntary combination of the mass organizations of workers and the representative the interests of the workers On the one hand, they can not effectively safeguard the legal rights and interests of the workers, and on the other hand, their legal interests will not be effectively safeguarded because of a lack of the necessary independent legal status. Therefore, in the current economic crisis, the strengthening of the unions in the labor dispute, the balance between the two parts in labor relations are of great significance in the development of the nation economy and social stability. In this paper, starting a research in the limited role of the unions in labor disputes, the writer tries to find a way for the union to protect the legal rights of the workers more effectively.Labor disputes caused by many reasons are the results of labor-management conflicts which can be seen in every aspect of labor relations. The legal procedure in China has four steps: consultation, mediation, arbitration, litigation. And the arbitration is an essential process to litigate. So the legal settlement mode of labor dispute in China is named as an arbitration two litigations mode. According to the four steps of China's labor dispute legal procedure, Chapter one introduces and summarizes the role of unions playing in the legal procedure of labor dispute, which will helps us analysis the limitations of the role of unions in the labor dispute. The negotiation is the first step of the legal procedure in the labor dispute, which can resolve the conflicts quickly, reduce dispute resolution sessions and save the cost for the two parties in conflicts. At the same time, the negotiation is an important part for unions to join in the labor dispute procedure. The role of unions in labor disputes consultation also depends on the type of enterprises. The union plays an important role in the part of the labor dispute mediation. Besides, the union should supervise and help enterprises to found a labor dispute mediation committee. Also, the union should preside over and participate in the work of the labor dispute mediation committee work. What's more, the union has the responsibility to promote the foundation and participate in the regional labor dispute mediation organizations, as well as to train the mediation staff. The participation of the union in the labor dispute largely depends on the role of the union as a member in the labor dispute arbitration committee. Besides, the union provides supports and assistance for the workers in the labor dispute arbitration. In the litigation of labor dispute, unions support workers to prosecute, provide effective supervision on the implementation of legal instruments and represent the workers in the litigation of dispute in collective contract.Chapter two analyses the reasons of the limitation of the union's role in the labor dispute settlement mechanism. The huge population in China is the major reason responsible for the long-term oversupply situation in the labor market. As a result, the strong position of the employers in strengthened, which brings more disadvantage for the workers, especially for those working in low-status positions. In contrast to the employer in a strong position, the union is lack of independent dominant position. Therefore, the union is in urgent need of the independence in the finance and necessary administrative independence. The union fund is subjected to the enterprises business. Moreover, the union wage system is also dependent on the employer, which is the main reseason why the union officers are lack of independence. The unions at the grass roots level are largely depending on the employers in the administrative aspect, but also in a weak position in getting rid of the infulunce from the local government and unions at higher levels of administration in practice. This becomes a major obstacle to the function of unions figuring out a solution to dispute in negotiation and mediation session. The grassroots mediation of labor disputes stays at a low rate of success. The weakening of the relevant mechanisms in dispute settlement procedures also stands in the way of the workers'legal rights protection. For example, the emptying of labor dispute mediation committee in the enterprise, the lack of independent right of appeal for the executive of unions and the lack of mandatory security of unions involved in collective contracts by the law are all the consequences of that situation.According to the above deficiencies, Chapter three focuses on how to strengthen the role of unions in labor disputes legally. The unions or employee representatives, on behalf of the workers'interests, should equally consult with the employers, and finally come to an agreement on a collective contract for workers in order to secure a relatively reasonable, fair labor conditions and labor remuneration. It is of great significance for the prevention and settlement of labor disputes. By the improvement of the collective contract, the relevant legislation, the establishment of multi-level system of collective bargaining, a clear legal responsibility of collective contracts and other measures, the collective contract can be effectively advanced. In order to change the current situation that the union organization lacks of the independence, we should start with the increase of the union's independence in economy and staff organization. In this way, the union can work individually and proctect the workers'interests effectively. Aslo, the improvement of the level of the mediation agreement by unions will help a lot in dispute settlement, and the enhancement of the unions'prestige. What's more, we can found a labor dispute arbitration tribunal in unions at the county level, which accepts the case by the labor dispute arbitration organizations. In this way, the function of the union in works'rights protection will be fully achieved. Besides, the case of labor dispute can be dealt with in time. Furthermore, the pressure of the labor dispute adjudgement will be greatly alleviated. Unions can be entrusted with the responsibility for mediating in court. On the one hand, union can mediate between two sides to reach an agreement. On the other, the court will deal with the cases which failed to reach an agreement on the condition of not giving up mediation. These positive practice and system innovation are very conducive for unions to play their roles in the labor dispute more effectively, also help China to build harmonious and stable labor relations.