Source: SCMP    Published: 2022-04-13

China's plan to ratify two international labour conventions is an attempt to resuscitate an investment deal with the EU and take some heat out of allegations of worker abuses ahead of the visit by the UN's human rights chief, observers said.

But some analysts expressed concern that ratification of the conventions would do little to improve conditions for workers in the region.

State media reported on Monday that Chinese lawmakers were ready to take the final step to ratify the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957.

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China has been accused of labour abuses against mostly Uygur workers in its far western region of Xinjiang, prompting tit-for-tat sanctions with Europe.

The decision to ratify the conventions comes ahead of a visit to China next month by United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet.

It also comes more than a year after China and the European Union ended seven years of talks on the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), a wide-ranging investment treaty that included an agreement that Beijing would ratify the International Labour Organization's fundamental conventions on forced labour.

But the deal has been in limbo since Brussels and Beijing started trading sanctions.

Surya Deva, professor of law at Macquarie University in Australia, said the announcement was timed before Bachelet's visit to signal that China took the protection of labour rights seriously.

"[The move] is also to warm its relations with the EU in view of the increasing cleavage with the US over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to try reviving the CAI which has been on ventilator because of the EU-China spat over sanctions," Deva said.

He said the ratification would give more opportunities to scrutinise China's track record on labour rights at the ILO level but was unlikely to have much impact on the ground in eliminating forced labour.

"Effective protection of labour rights requires a supportive ecosystem with multiple elements, but most of these are missing within the current Chinese politico-legal system. The lack of independent trade unions and free media are a case in point," Deva said.

Wang Yiwei, a professor of European studies at Renmin University in Beijing, said ratification could help ease confrontation over Xinjiang and help "turn the page on the EU-China relations that has been strained by the Xinjiang issues" ahead of Bachelet's visit next month.

"[The ratification] is necessary for China's domestic reforms, for making high-level rules and standards around the world and, of course, for the improvement of China-EU relations," Wang said.

China has also applied to join 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact that has high standard on protecting workers' rights, and there have been talks of upgrading the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, another mega deal with 15 economies in the Asia-Pacific, to include provisions to better safeguard labour rights.

China has consistently denied the accusations of forced labour, but Western governments have pressed ahead with sanctions.

The Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act in the US is set to take effect in June and would ban all goods made in Xinjiang.

In December, the EU renewed sanctions that were imposed on four Chinese officials and one entity in March last year. China has also imposed sweeping counter sanctions on EU diplomats, lawmakers and researchers.

Frank Hoffer, a researcher fellow at the Global Labour University and a former ILO official, said ratification would not lead to an improvement overnight but would enable the international community and trade unions to expose and demand compliance with international standards ratified by the Chinese government.

"Any report from the ILO supervisory mechanism will increase the pressure on Western companies to ensure that Chinese forced labour is not part of their supply chain. This might create some economic pressure for change," Hoffer said.

Aidan Chau, a researcher with the China Labour Bulletin, said the move was a "diplomatic decision" that would not lead to any meaningful domestic changes.

Chau said China had ratified the 1988 Safety and Health in Construction Convention and the 1981 Occupational Safety and Health Convention but "we continue to see construction site work accidents such as crane collapses being prevalent in China".

"We believe that only through workers' organisation and collective bargaining can workers advance their interests and safeguard their rights," he said.

The ILO identified eight fundamental conventions covering basic work rights including collective bargaining and the right to form trade unions.

China has ratified four of the less controversial conventions on equal pay, discrimination, minimum age and child labour but has stayed away from two of the most contentious ones granting workers the rights to collective bargain and form independent workers organisations.

Governments in general are reluctant to ratify the conventions as it requires legal compliance and exposes them to supervisory mechanisms for alleged failures in implementation.

The US is another country with low ratifications, ratifying only two of the eight fundamental ILO conventions, on forced labour and child labour.