A grassroots mediation committee for labor disputes was established in the Tianqiao neighborhood in Beijing's Xuanwu District yesterday.

The committee, the first of its kind in Beijing, is aimed at resolving employment disputes in their initial stages, in a bid to prevent situations from escalating and possibly leading to social unrest, according to the district's Labor and Social Security Bureau.

The bureau received a total of 826 labor dispute complaints between January and July, a sharp rise of 205 percent compared with the same period last year.

Most of the disputes centered around early termination of employment contracts, employers' refusal to pay overtime, and employers' failure to provide social insurance and welfare benefits.

The bureau director Duan Zhanmin said the soaring number of employment disputes have resulted mainly from the ongoing restructuring and reform of the country's economy, which has led to a more diversified and complicated employer-employee relationship.

Meanwhile, the increased rights and legal awareness of workers also contributes to the growth in the number of disputes, Duan added.

Duan said the establishment of the mediation committee in Tianqiao neighborhood is an attempt by the bureau to reach deep down to grassroots level and remove any destabilizing factors that may lead to conflict.

Hu Xiuting, a mediator with the five-member committee, said apart from arbitrating labor disputes, she and her colleagues would go to the companies involved and try to understand the dynamic of the employer-employee relationship.

Hu said there are about 84 enterprises and institutions in the Tianqiao community, employing a total of more than 20,000 workers. The committee will set up records for each of the work units and provide legal consultation for both employers and employees.

Yang Lu, another mediator, said they would try to build close and stable relations between both parties. "Friendship and trust might help bolster their confidence in us, thereby helping us address the problems."

Yang said solving labor disputes in the early stages could prevent confrontations spilling over into the community-at-large.

(China Daily August 18, 2005)