GUANGZHOU, July 21 -- South China's Guangdong Province Wednesday reviewed a draft of the country's first law that sets the rules for labor disputes and wage negotiations amid efforts to ease labor tensions after a string of strikes and worker suicides.

One of the major purposes of the revised draft Regulation on the Democratic Management of Enterprises in Guangdong is to establish a legal-binding wage negotiation mechanism. Among the Regulation's 83 articles, 25 concern wage negotiation.

The relevant union should organize wage negotiations between elected worker representatives and the employer when more than one-fifth of the workers demand a pay rise, according to the draft law.

If the employer refuses to hold or join a wage negotiation, the workers would be entitled to stop working and the employer should not fire them for doing so, the draft reads.

Workers who had previously gone on strike said this regulation 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 Regulation will be the most comprehensive labor law in China if it is adopted, said Liu Mu, head of the labor law department of standing committee of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress, the provincial legislative body.

"It will establish a mechanism so workers can legally voice demands for pay raises for the first time in China," he said.

Some employers also welcomed the draft law. Entrepreneurs in Guangdong Province said a legal wage negotiation mechanism could help to avoid unnecessary disruption of company operations and avoid violent confrontations.

"What the companies worry most 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.

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

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

HAUNTING LABOR STRIFE

A spate of strikes and worker suicides in Guangdong prompted the authorities to relaunch the review of the Regulation, said Ou Guangyuan, head of the standing committee of Guangdong's People's Congress.

Guangdong has 30 million migrant workers, most of whom are employed by foreign funded labor-intensive manufacturers in the Pearl 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 promulgate laws to ensure the income of Chinese workers increases at a stable and reasonable rate," said He Gaochao, a scholar with Zhongshan University researching labor issues in China.

Currently, a strike is ongoing at Atsumitec Auto Parts, a Honda parts supply factory in Guangdong's Foshan City.

However, Honda China said Tuesday that car production has so far not been affected. Previous strikes at Honda's parts plants in China have halted the Japanese company's auto production.

Nearly 200 of Atsumitec Auto Parts' (Foshan) about 230 workers went on strike July 12 demanding a wage increase of 500 yuan (about 73 U.S. dollars).

Foxconn, the world's biggest electronics contractor, maker of the iPhone and iPad, spurred national outcry after 10 workers fell to their deaths from factory and dormitory buildings at the Foxconn's industrial complex in the boomtown of Shenzhen in southern Guangdong, near Hong Kong.

The company made headlines again Tuesday when an 18-year-old worker at an affiliate company in Guangdong's Foshan City fell to death from the sixth floor of a dormitory building.

The police are investigating the death of the 18-year-old man, a native from north China's Hebei Province who worked as a summer intern with Chimei Innolux, which was formed in a three-way merger earlier this year.