Protests, riots and even suicides. Chinese workers have been driven to desperate measures by the intolerable conditions that have prevailed in factories churning out goods to meet the world’s insatiable demand for new gadgets. The decision by Foxconn, a big Apple supplier, ostensibly to allow workers to elect genuine union representatives is a welcome step towards ending these abuses.

As China’s largest private employer, Foxconn’s move to step back from control of the in-house union is a powerful signal to other companies that they need not fear greater employee participation in the workplace. Had there been union officials less tied to management and more sympathetic to complaints over health and safety or working conditions, Foxconn might have been spared the tragic suicides of 2009 and 2010 or the riots that closed down a factory last year.

But Foxconn’s offer reveals less about the development of workers’ rights in China than it does about the pragmatism of Communist party leaders when faced with the social pressures of urbanisation, labour shortages and a slower economy. The authorities have recognised that workers need a more effective voice on the factory floor if they are to be kept away from the streets. Foxconn could not have entertained the idea of free elections – which are unknown in China, even in the workplace – without party approval. In fact, there will be important constraints on the freedom of the representatives. The All China Federation of Trade Unions, a state organisation, will still have to approve those from the elected body who will lead the company union.