Outstanding provisions on grassroots democracy regulations

Question: What are regulations on grassroots democracy regulations at the workplace?

Answer:  Decree 149 features the following key points:

Employee’s right to comment  

Decree 149 supplements the employees’ right to comment on the subject matter of the formulation, amendment and supplementation of salary scales, salary table and labor norms; proposed collective bargaining.

Removing the regulation on organizing periodic dialogues

Decree 60 stipulates that employers shall take the lead to coordinate with the employee collective representative organizations at the grassroots level to organize dialogues at workplaces once every three months. A maximum gap between two periodical consecutive dialogues must not exceed 90 days. However, Decree 149 only provides that the periodic workplace dialogues shall be stipulated in and implemented per the Grassroots democracy Regulations of the enterprises without specifying any periodic term.

Repealing the detailed regulations on organizing dialogues at the workplace and the employee conference

Decree 149 does not specify the subject matter of the organization of the dialogues at the workplace and the employee conference (form of organization, participants, time, venue, organizing process) as in Decree 60.

Instead, such issues will be performed under the grassroots Democracy Regulations at the workplaces of the enterprises.

Regulating the formulation and promulgation of the grassroots democracy Regulations at the workplace

Decree 149 further specifies the promulgation of the grassroots democracy Regulations at the workplace. Accordingly, the employers are responsible for promulgating the grassroots democracy.

Regulations at the workplace on the basis of consultation with the labor collective representative organization at the grassroots level and publicly disseminating it to employees before implementation.

In particular, the grassroots democracy Regulations at the workplace must specify the following contents:  (1) Dialogue content, the number and names of participants of the dialogue, time and venue of the dialogue, the process of organizing dialogues in the form of dialogue at the work place; and  (2) Form of conference organization, content,  name of participants, time, venue, organizing process, responsibilities for organization and implementation and form of disclosing employee conference results in the form of an employee conference.

Exemption from organizing the employee conference and promulgating the Grassroots Democracy Regulations at the workplace

Decree 149 exempts the employers recruiting less than 10 employees from the responsibility for organizing the employee conference and promulgating the grassroots democracy Regulations at the workplaces.

Decree 149 will take effect as from January 1, 2019./.