The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) will select the top 10 lawyers who have done most to protect rights of workers who laid more than 300,000 complaints against their employers last year.

Zhang Mingqi, member of the secretariat of ACFTU, said here on Thursday that the lawyers, including lawyers employed by trade unions and those who provide services for workers in labor disputes can apply for the award from the middle of this month.

The results will be announced at the end of December.

"We hope to attract more lawyers to provide services for workers through this process," Zhang said.

According to ACFTU's statistics labor disputes last year increased by 20.5 percent. Disputes involving pay and social security issues were the most common, accounting for 65 percent of all about 315,400 disputes.

Zhang said the number of union legal aid offices had reached 3,856 by the end of last year, 11,059 legal specialists were employed by the trade unions, and 18,167 labor disputes were settled by these organizations.

.Source: Xinhua