The following is a summary of this linked story posted on December 30, 2013:
A blacklist of workers was released by Sanjiaozhen Chamber of Commerce in Zhongshan, Guangdong to their corporation members. According to the Southern Metropolis Daily, the names of more than 500 workers were put on the list with their ID information for alleged reasons such as participating in strikes, insubordination to management, labor disputes, stealing corporate property, or leakage of confidential information. One worker was included merely because his father was on the list, while another was listed for getting “agitated during the process of rights defense”. However, for most of the other names, no reasons were stated as to why they were included.
Mr. Shang Dajiang, currently employed in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, was quite astonished to find out that his name was on the list as well. “I’ve never worked in Zhongshan before,” he said, “I did work in Dongguan, Guangdong once, but that was three years ago.” Shang said he lost his ID card while working in Dongguan and someone may have used his ID card to work elsewhere. “How can they put my name on the list without investigation?” Shang complained. Another listed worker named Guan had demanded a raise in salary while working for a factory in Sanjiao County and eventually had to quit without compensation. “It is irresponsible to put our names on a blacklist.”
Wu Jintang, the working secretary from Sanjiaozhen Chamber of Commerce, claimed that these names were all reported by member corporations and they had no means of investigating further. The compiled list was then released to the managing director or chairman of board of each member corporation, notifying them that these workers “seriously influence the normal production of companies and are extremely harmful to companies”… “you should consider not hiring these people.”
Corporate blacklisting infringes upon the rights of workers and is a violation of labor law, a lawyer from Guangdong pointed out. The process of reporting names through corporations’ views of events is potentially biased, inaccurate, and questionable. With large numbers of migrant workers who are mobile and hard to track, the Chamber of Commerce, especially that of one in a small county like Sanjiang, lacks the capacity to investigate and verify the authenticity of the lists.
That such a blacklist exists is a sign of underdevelopment and inconsistency in China’s legal system, and the enforcement of basic legal rights in China must be strengthened.