BEIJING -- China's trade unions should do a better job protecting employees' rights as compulsory overtime and unreasonably low pay are rife in companies all over the country, an on-line survey has revealed.

According to the survey published on Monday by China's Youth Daily after polling 4,747 people, 71.6 percent of the respondents believed China's trade unions had not fully carried out its tasks.

"There's no doubt China's unions face massive challenges in playing an active role to protect employees' rights," the survey concluded.

The survey was published following a landmark decision by Wal-Mart Stories Inc. last week to set up trade unions in its outlets all over China in collaboration with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) - China's union authority.

The federation has more than 1.17 million grass-roots trade unions across the country. An ACFTU official disclosed that in the first six months of this year, almost 9 million Chinese had joined trade unions and over 80,000 trade unions had been set up.

The establishment of trade unions is necessary according to most of the respondents, the survey said. Without them, companies would force their employees to agree with company decisions regardless of their wishes, it said.

"It is very easy to pick out an example in China of how an employee's rights are infringed upon by his employer," the paper said. "Wages are delayed, compensation is difficult to get for work-related illness, and employees are usually sacked for disagreeing over a company's policies on overtime working or wage distribution."

More than half of the employees working overtime are not willing to do so, the paper said, citing another survey. "Though most firms say there is no overtime, the employees are usually assigned overwhelming workloads, which results in them staying late.

In total, 86.7 percent of the respondents considered the need for trade union help is at its greatest in private firms, followed by foreign firms with 69.2 percent, the survey found.

Being the world's largest retailer with 1.6 million employees in 16 countries and regions, Wal-Mart has traditionally refused to allow trade unions in its outlets, incurring criticism from human rights and labor organizations.

A statement released by Wal-Mart last week said it would set up trade unions in all its outlets across China. At present, trade unions have been set up in cities like Nanjing, Quanzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai.