Yiwu launches corporate social responsibility certification, trade unions innovate in rights protection

"Corporate social responsibility" is not unfamiliar to many people. It refers to the responsibilities or obligations that companies should bear to their stakeholders and society while pursuing profit maximization.

"In addition to being in line with international standards, the biggest feature of the 'Yiwu version' of the certification standards is that it incorporates the union's rights protection claims into corporate social responsibility standards." Chen Youde said that trade union organizations can make full use of these means to achieve pre-emptive rights protection and effectively regulate corporate employment practices from the source.

The reporter learned from the interview that Yiwu Standard Certification is divided into 5 levels, with a total of 82 implementation clauses, covering 4 aspects: labor relations, natural relations (environment), social relations and social evaluation. Among them, there are 46 clauses related to labor relations, such as labor contract signing rate, annual growth rate of average wage per employee, wage payment, employee benefits, average daily working hours of employees, and health examinations, accounting for 48% of the total score.

In May 2009, the Yiwu Federation of Trade Unions took the lead in jointly formulating the "Yiwu Standard for Corporate Social Responsibility YW2009" with 17 relevant government departments and it was officially promulgated. A certification pilot was carried out in Beiyuan Street, where the most local enterprises are concentrated, which promoted enterprises from "self-discipline" to "social restraint."

Gong Yilu, chairman of the labor union of Yiwu Beiyuan Sub-district Office, said that after more than a year of corporate social responsibility assessment activities, the most obvious achievement of Beiyuan Sub-district is that it has influenced and promoted more than 1,800 large and small enterprises under its jurisdiction to pay more attention to harmonious labor relations. After comparative statistics, the number of labor-management disputes in enterprises in the jurisdiction has decreased by 42% year-on-year.

"Yiwu has more than 1.3 million migrant workers, and protecting the rights of workers has always been the top priority of local work." Chen Youde said that Yiwu is currently carrying out corporate social responsibility evaluation and certification throughout the city. In the future, it will gradually transition from voluntary certification by enterprises to mandatory certification by the government.
In 1998, after Chen Youde was transferred from the position of Party Secretary of Heyetang Town, Yiwu City to the position of Party Secretary and Chairman of Yiwu Federation of Trade Unions, he was committed to "letting the unfortunate migrant workers stop crying" and was the first in the country to blaze a path of social rights protection under the leadership of trade union organizations. Chen Youde became famous because of this.

Today, the "Yiwu model of trade union rights protection" has spread across the country. But Chen Youde feels that the exploration is far from enough.

"This socialized rights protection model is mainly aimed at 'after-the-fact rights protection' carried out after labor-capital conflicts arise, and it is difficult to eliminate the generation of labor-capital conflicts from the source." Chen Youde said that if on this basis, a "prior rights protection" mechanism is built to promote enterprises to pay attention to employee rights and interests, the effectiveness of trade union rights protection will be more significant.

In recent years, Chen Youde and the Yiwu Federation of Trade Unions have continued to explore new perspectives for protecting rights by reducing the source of labor disputes.

During their investigation, they found that drawing on the corporate social responsibility certification methods promoted by European and American countries and establishing a corporate social responsibility certification system that conforms to national conditions and Yiwu's local realities is an effective way to achieve "prior rights protection."

Professor Yao Xianguo, Dean of the School of Public Administration at Zhejiang University, said that over the years, Chen Youde and the Yiwu Federation of Trade Unions have not stopped innovating. The institutional innovation of the Yiwu Standard of Corporate Social Responsibility has enabled the social rights protection of trade unions to form a system of "post-rights protection" and "pre-rights protection", which has greatly strengthened the initiative and effectiveness of trade union rights protection, and promoted the protection of the rights and interests of employee groups and the improvement of the overall competitiveness of enterprises.