GUANGZHOU, July 21 -- Officials in south China's Guangdong Province on Wednesday reviewed a draft of the country's first law that sets the rules for labor disputes and wage negotiations to ease labor tensions.

The new law hopes to "turn the lose-lose labor disputes into win-win negotiations" as it is expected to save unnecessary costs for both workers and employers through orderly negotiations, said Liu Mu, head of the labor law department of the standing committee of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress, the provincial legislative body.

The Regulation on the Democratic Management of Enterprises in Guangdong aims to solve two major labor issues -- poor welfare and low payment, said Ou Guangyuan, head of the standing committee of Guangdong's People's Congress.

Guangdong first mulled creating such a law about a year ago, but stopped reviewing it amid the global economic crisis for fear of increasing the burden on companies.

But a spate of strikes and worker suicides in Guangdong prompted authorities to relaunch the review of the law, Ou said.

HAUNTING COSTLY LABOR DISPUTES

At least two strikes are currently underway in Guangdong.

An unknown number of workers of Omron (Guangzhou) Automobile Electronics Co. Ltd, which supplies Honda and Toyota vehicles with electronic components, went on strike Wednesday.

They have demanded the company raise their monthly salary from 1,300 yuan (about 191 U.S. dollars) to 1,800 yuan.

At the same time, workers of Atsumitec Auto Parts, a Honda parts supply factory in Guangdong's Foshan City, continued their strike as part of a walkout that began July 12, and is the longest walkout reported in the series of strikes that hit Guangdong this year.

Previous strikes at different auto-parts suppliers forced Honda and Toyota's assembly plants in China to halt production. Most of the companies compromised with striking workers by increasing wages.

Although Honda and Toyota's China branches refused to comment on the strikes, analysts estimate significant losses caused by the work stoppages.

Workers at several plants hit by strikes told Xinhua that their leaders were sacked by the companies as retribution.

Labor issues not only cost jobs but also claimed some lives.

An 18-year-old migrant worker of Chimei Innolux, which was merged with Foxconn, maker of the Ipad and Iphone, early this year fell to his death from the sixth floor of a dormitory building in Guangdong's Foshan City.

Although police have not confirmed whether this was a suicide, the death ended a short relief for Foxconn from a national outcry following 10 suicides in the company's industrial complex in the boomtown of Shenzhen in southern Guangdong near Hong Kong.

Foxconn increased average monthly wages of its assembly line workers from 900 yuan to 2,000 yuan in June, adding an estimated annual hike in manufacturing costs of 5 billion yuan.

WAGE NEGOTIATION MECHANISM

One of the major purposes of the revised draft is to establish a legally binding wage negotiation mechanism. Among the regulation's 83 articles, 25 concern wage negotiations.

According to the new law, unions should organize wage negotiations between elected worker representatives and employers when more than one-fifth of the workers demand a pay raise, according to the draft law.

If the employer refuses to hold or join wage negotiations, the workers would be entitled to stop working and the employer may not fire workers for striking, the draft reads. Workers who recently joined strikes or work stoppages said this clause was "particularly important".

"Currently, we are not protected by laws like this. Companies often fire striking workers without giving any compensation. In the future, our rights will be better protected," said a worker who declined to give his name.

The law will be the most comprehensive labor law in China, when adopted. "It will establish a mechanism so workers can legally voice demands for pay raises for the first time in China," Liu Mu, the official with the standing committee of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress, said.

The draft law, which is now being discussed and revised, is expected to be adopted at a later date.

Some employers also welcomed the draft law. Guangdong entrepreneurs say a legal wage negotiation mechanism can help to avoid unnecessary disruptions of company operations and avoid violent confrontations.

"What the companies worry most about is work stoppages without prior notice. A standard and legal mechanism can minimize the loss for both companies and the workers," said Cheng Fengyuan, chairman of Guangdong's Taiwan Businessmen Association.

Guangdong has 30 million migrant workers, most of who are employed by foreign-owned labor-intensive manufacturers in the Zhujiang River Delta.

Experts say low pay and poor working conditions have been the main cause of the labor strife that has been haunting the area.

"It has become an urgent and imperative mission for Guangdong and China as a whole to set up laws to ensure the income of Chinese workers' increases at a stable and reasonable rate," said He Gaochao, a scholar with Zhongshan University who is researching labor issues in China.

LAW ON WORKERS' WELFARE

The Foxconn tragedy taught us that businesses must respect workers and preserve their dignity, Liu Mu said.

To improve the welfare of workers, the regulation will require enterprises to "shoulder their social responsibility, pay attention to the mental and physical health of their workers and enrich their cultural and spiritual life."

Some experts hailed the new requirement as a sign toward improving Chinese workers' mental health and spiritual life.

"It is a proper response to the most urgent needs of Chinese workers, showing China is establishing laws to make sure that employees can work with decency and live with dignity," said Zhu Yikun, a scholar with Jinan University.

But other experts doubt if the regulation can truly help to improve the working conditions and meet workers' spiritual needs.

The effect of the regulation in this regard has yet to be proven by time. It is difficult to evaluate and standardize pressure, mental health and spiritual life, He Gaochao, the scholar with Zhongshan University, said.

Lawmakers are specifying articles of the regulation in this regard for easier enforcement, Ou Guangyuan, head of the standing committee of Guangdong's People's Congress, said.

Too much overtime and negligence of workers' spiritual needs are widely regarded as the cause of the Foxconn workers' suicides.

A survey by Shenzhen municipal government of 5,044 Foxconn workers showed more than 72.5 percent of them performed overtime, exceeding the maximum legal limit.

Pressures tend to build up in the workers' community of large manufacturing bases, which are almost closed to the outside world, said Xiao Shuiyuan, an expert on crisis intervention with the China Association for Mental Health.

Social services such as entertainment and mental support need to be introduced into the workers' living environment to meet their spiritual needs.

The Regulation is intended to create a pilot labor dispute settlement mechanism that can be promoted across the country, Liu Mu said.

The All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) is prompting authorities to draft a regulation on wages to make wage negotiations compulsory, said Zhang Jianguo, a senior official with the union.

ACFTU is piloting a wage negotiations program in 10 provinces and municipalities. Beijing has been sponsoring this mechanism since 2000 and about 17,000 enterprises have adopted wage negotiation regulations. But an official with Beijing's trade union was quoted by Beijing Times as saying the results were far from satisfactory.