Abstract
Labour relations in modern China have long been unbalanced. During the Mao era, all workers were supposed to contribute their labour without reservation to the state-owned employing ‘units’, which were responsible for setting wages, as well as providing health care, housing, children’s education, and even arranging marriages. Beginning with Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in the 1980s, many state-owned enterprises were transformed into private businesses, but the organizational style — absolute power concentrated at the top of the enterprise — had not changed significantly. However, with the opening of China’s economy to outside investment and enterprises, labour-management relations characteristic of the rest of East Asia, as well as other non-communist nations, have increasingly replaced the older Maoist style relationship between enterprise and individual. Of course this shift to an overtly capitalist brand of labour relations has not by itself done anything to ameliorate the hierarchy and authoritarianism endemic to the Chinese workplace. Commissar or capitalist, management in modern China has too often ruled with an iron fist.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Adams, J. (2008) ‘New Labor Regulations Designed to Protect China’s Workers are Already Having an Impact’, Newsweek, 14 February, at http://www.newsweek.com.
AP (2008) ‘Rising Costs Squeeze Chinese Factories; Some Companies Look to Cheaper Markets’, International Herald Tribune, 22 February.
Barboza, D. (2006) ‘China Drafts Law to Empower Unions and End Labor Abuse’, New York Times, 13 October.
Chan, J. L. (forthcoming) ‘Legalization of Labour Relations in China: the Labour Contract Law as a Double-Edged Sword’.
Chung, O. (2008) ‘Last Call for Guangdong Shoemakers’, China Business, 5 February.
Clean Clothes (2008) ‘Chinese Activist Attacked’, Clean Clothes Newsletter, 25: 18–19, at http://www.cleanclothes.org/ftp/ccc_newsletter_25.pdf accessed 12 August 2008.
Costello, T., Smith, B. and Brecher, J. (2006) ‘Labour Rights in China’, Foreign Policy in Focus, 21 December, at http://www.fpif.org.
De, Jiang (2008) ‘Four Months After Labor Contract Law Came into Effect, Employing Units Taste the Bitter Fruit for Evading the New Law’, Legal Daily, 10 May, at http://www.legaldaily.com.cn/0705/2008–05/10/content_848607.htm.
Du Yiwen and Bo Yaoyao (2008) ‘100 Thousand People Dissolved Their Labor Contracts in Nanjing Since the New Labor Contract Law Took Effect’, Modern Express, 19 June, available at http://www.ldht.org/Html/news/news/320059867. html.
French, H. (2004) ‘Workers Demand Union at Wal-Mart Supplier in China’, New York Times, 16 December.
Harris, D. and Luo, B. (2008) ‘The Impact of China’s Labour Contract Law’, China Law Blog, at www.chinalawblog,com, 15 September.
Ho, V. H. (2003) Labor Dispute Resolution in China: Implications for Labor Rights and Legal Reform, China Research Monographs, no. 59, Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies.
IHLO (2007) ‘Sackings at Wal-Mart: Global Restructuring or Avoiding the New Contract Law?’ December, at http://www.ihlo.org.
IHLO (2008) ‘New Labour Contract Law: Myth and Reality Six Months after Implementation’, at http://www.ihlo.org/LRC/WC/270608.html
Lee, Ching Kwan (2007) Against the Law: Labour Protests in China’s Rustbelt and Sunbelt, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Ma, Baoping (2005) ‘Issues Concerning the Building of a Socialist Harmonious Society’, Journal of Lanzhou Commercial College, 5.
Migrant Workers’ Centre (2008) ‘A Survey on the Implementation of the New Labour Contract Law’, 19 May, at hbrindle-khym@fairlabour.org.
MSN (Maquila Solidarity Network) (2008) ‘Chinese Labour Contract Law’, Maquila Solidarity Update, 13, 3.
People’s Daily (1999) ‘Premier Zhu Rongji’s Speech at the Closing Session of the National Technological Innovation Conference’, 26 August.
Qiu Huihui (2007) ‘Huawei’s Countermeasure against the New Law’, The 21st Century Economic Report, 27 October, available at http://tech.sina.com.cn/t/2007–10–27/00181817070.shtml.
SACOM (Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour) (2008) Paper Money: the Exploitation of Chinese Workers of the Nine Dragons Paper Owned by the ‘Richest Woman’ Zhang Yin, research report, available at http://www.sacom.hk (in both Chinese and English).
Shirouzu, N. (2008) ‘Chinese Laborers Face Grim Job Search’, Wall Street Journal, 10 November.
Worker Empowerment (2008) ‘New Ongoing Violations After the Implementation of Labour Contract Law in China’, translation of the original document by the Shenzhen Dagongzhe Migrant Workers’ Centre, available in Chinese at http:/ www.ngocn.org/?11799.
Yardley, J. and Barboza, D. (2005) ‘Help Wanted: China Finds Itself With a Labor Shortage’, New York Times, 3 April.
Zhang, Xinguo (2007) ‘Several Problems on Reverse Dispatch and Consequent Labour Disputes’, People’s Court News, 16 April, at http://www.lawyer-sh.com.cn/ReadNews.asp?NewsID=4832.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2010 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Haiyan, W., Appelbaum, R.P., Degiuli, F., Lichtenstein, N. (2010). China’s New Labour Contract Law: Is China Moving Towards Increased Power for Workers?. In: Bowles, P., Harriss, J. (eds) Globalization and Labour in China and India. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230297296_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230297296_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-31183-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-29729-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)