SHENZHEN, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Southern China's Shenzhen City has drafted new labor rules to smooth industrial relations in the special economic zone (SEZ), after the manufacturing hub was stung by a series of worker strikes earlier in the year.
The draft law is scheduled to be reviewed as early as September in a meeting of the standing committee of the Municipal People's Congress, which stipulates that the class salary negotiations shall be conducted at least once a year.
Fu Bolun, one of the law's chief drafters, said the law will establish a mechanism for negotiation of periodic pay rises in order to minimize labor disputes.
Thirty years after becoming a SEZ, the booming Shenzhen economy was hit by a spate of worker strikes and even deaths.
Some said the SEZ is enduring the pains of growing-up -- according to a Chinese saying, someone is not mature enough until he hits his thirties.
A city of migrants, the former fishery village bordering Hong Kong has seen 8 million outsiders flood in. About 70 percent of them come from rural areas and work labor-intensive jobs.
But low salaries, long the city's comparative advantage in attracting foreign investment, triggered many high-profile industrial conflicts in recent months.
Workers began striking here and in nearby cites in Guangdong province in May. Companies including Omron (Guangzhou) Automobile Electronics and auto-parts suppliers for Honda and Toyota were affected.
