Didi, JD.com workers get unions in watershed moment for China's tech sector

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc has set up a union for its staff while e-commerce powerhouse JD.com has also established one — landmark moves in the country's tech sector where organised labour is extremely rare.

Regulators in China have come down hard on its biggest technology firms this year, criticising them for policies that exploit workers and infringe on consumer rights in addition to unleashing a slew of anti-trust probes and fines. The government is also encouraging companies to implement initiatives to share wealth as part of a recent "common prosperity" drive laid out by President Xi Jinping.

Didi's union, announced on an internal forum last month, will be initially managed by employees at its Beijing headquarters and will be guided by the government-backed All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACTFU), said two people familiar with matter. JD.com established a trade union this week, a newspaper affiliated with the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions said. The firm confirmed the news, saying that some of its local units had created unions in past years and the new union aimed to coordinate planning and resources.

Didi has been criticised by state media for not paying its drivers fairly and it said in April it would set up a drivers committee to improve income stability and transparency over wages.