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Labour Inspection in Contemporary China: Like the Anglo-Saxon Model, but Different

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Abstract

This chapter examines the lack of enforcement of China’s increasing body of labour legislation, showing how, since the 1980s, the country’s labour inspection system has evolved into a system resembling the Anglo-Saxon model—characterized by fragmentation and reactive regulatory practices—but with highly selective and non-coercive state enforcement. This “hybrid” labour inspection model stems from the combination of neoliberal reforms with the Leninist legacy of the authoritarian regime. More effective enforcement of labour law would, the authors suggest, require greater tripartite cooperation and social dialogue in the regulatory process and the involvement of an independently organized industrial force.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For more information on the Chinese “Hukou” household registration system.

  2. 2.

    Under the 2004 Regulation on Labour Security Supervision, labour administrations at county level and above were required to establish a corresponding labour inspectorate.

  3. 3.

    The ILO set up benchmarks for the human resources of labour inspectorates according to the stage of economic development of the country: one inspector per 10,000 workers in industrial market economies; one per 15,000 in industrializing economies; one per 20,000 workers in transition economies; and one per 40,000 workers in less developed economies (see ILO 2006, p. 4).

  4. 4.

    Interview with a labour inspector in a municipal labour bureau on 4 August 2008. Also see Zhao (2010), interview with Chief of Yunnan Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security; and Department of Human Resources and Social Security in Fujian Province (2011).

  5. 5.

    Interview with chief of a county-level labour bureau, 29 July 2008.

  6. 6.

    Interviews with directors of three manufacturing firms, 25 July 2008.

  7. 7.

    Interview with the chief of a county-level labour bureau, 29 July 2008.

  8. 8.

    Interview with the chief of a municipal labour bureau, 4 August 2008.

  9. 9.

    See interview with the chief of the Yunnan Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security, in Zhao (2010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Chinese Public Administration Research, School of Government, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Wenjia Zhuang & Kinglun Ngok

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  1. Wenjia Zhuang
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  2. Kinglun Ngok
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Jianxing Yu

  2. Department of Political Science, and Center for US-China Policy Studies, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Sujian Guo

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Zhuang, W., Ngok, K. (2019). Labour Inspection in Contemporary China: Like the Anglo-Saxon Model, but Different. In: Yu, J., Guo, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Local Governance in Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2799-5_27

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