Please find below details of our latest Human Relations Special Issue – with free access for one month to the articles and podcast. You can access the entire special issue here: February 2015; Vol. 68, No. 2.
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Changing work, labour and employment relations in China
Guest editors: Sarosh Kuruvilla and Eli Friedman
Experimentation and decentralization in China's labor relations
Eli Friedman and Sarosh Kuruvilla
Human Relations February 2015 68(2): 181‒195, DOI: 10.1177/0018726714552087
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/2/181?etoc
Abstract
In this introduction to the special issue 'Changing work, labour and employment relations in China', we argue that China is taking an experimental and decentralized approach to the development of new labor relations frameworks. Particular political constraints in China prevent interest aggregation among workers, as the central state sees this as posing a risk to social stability. Firms and local governments have been given a degree of space to experiment with different arrangements, as long as the categorical ban on independent unions is not violated. The consequence has been an increasingly differentiated labor relations landscape, with significant variation by region and sector. We note some countervailing tendencies towards re-centralization, but emphasize that this phenomenon remains largely confined to the municipal level. The five articles in this special issue address different aspects of both experimentation and decentralization in labor relations.
China's 2008 Labor Contract Law: Implementation and implications for China's workers
Mary Gallagher, John Giles, Albert Park, and Meiyan Wang
Human Relations February 2015 68(2): 197‒235, first published on February 17, 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0018726713509418
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/2/197?etoc
Abstract
This article presents empirical evidence from household and firm survey data collected during 2009−2010 on the implementation of the 2008 Labor Contract Law and effects on China's workers. The Government and local labor bureaus have made substantial efforts to enforce the provisions of the new Law, which has likely contributed to reversing a trend toward increasing informalization of the urban labor market. Enforcement of the Law, however, varies substantially across cities. The article analyzes the determinants of worker satisfaction with the Law's enforcement, workers' propensity to have a labor contract, their awareness of the Law's content and their likelihood of initiating disputes, and finds that all are highly correlated with education level, especially for migrants. Although higher labor costs may have had a negative impact on manufacturing employment growth, this has not led to an overall increase in aggregate unemployment or prevented the rapid growth of real wages. Less progress has been made in increasing social insurance coverage, although signing a labor contract is more likely to be associated with participation in social insurance programs than in the past, particularly for migrant workers.
Explaining compliance: A multi-actor framework for understanding labour law compliance in China
Sunwook Chung
Human Relations February 2015 68(2): 237‒260, first published on June 30, 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0018726714530013
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/2/237?etoc
Abstract
I argue that there is increasing evidence that multiple stakeholders, such as labour intermediaries and independent workers, are involved in the regulation of labour standards in China, resulting in increasing compliance with labour laws. In addition, I argue that the differential interests of multiple stakeholders lead to a variation in compliance across different labour law provisions. I find support for these arguments using original factory-level compliance data collected in southern China between 2009 and 2011. There is 'thick' compliance when stakeholders' interests converge, as observed in the case of written contract requirements. There is 'thin' compliance when there is less convergence in stakeholder interests, as observed in the case of compliance with social insurance provisions. Finally, there is no compliance when there is convergence toward non-compliance in stakeholder interests, as observed in the case of overtime hour limits.
Chinese migrants' work experience and city identification: Challenging the underclass thesis
Stephen J Frenkel and Chongxin Yu
Human Relations February 2015 68(2): 261‒285, first published on January 28, 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0018726713508991
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/2/261?etoc
Abstract
Are internal migrant workers who have contributed so much to contemporary Chinese economic growth forming a distinct, impoverished underclass (Chan, 2010; Solinger, 2006) or are they slowly merging into the Chinese working class? In this article sociological theory is employed to develop the distinction between underclass and working class, including the conditions and criteria that enable these social categories to be distinguished theoretically and empirically. Drawing on a large range of survey data, including our own analysis of a recent Chinese migrant worker survey, we examine relevant aspects of work and city experience in order to assess the underclass thesis. In addition, we evaluate the argument that younger migrant workers are significantly different in work orientation and strategies for work-life improvement compared with their more experienced counterparts. We conclude that evidence for the underclass thesis is less compelling than an interpretation that views most migrant workers as transitioning into the working class. In addition, although younger workers are more intrinsically oriented than older migrants, both groups concur that labor law enforcement is critical for work-life improvement while simultaneously developing their own collective capacity to influence labor relations outcomes.
Humanized management? Capital and migrant labour in a time of labour shortage in South China
Susanne YP Choi and Yinni Peng
Human Relations February 2015 68(2): 287‒304, first published on October 9, 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0018726714541162
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/2/287?etoc
Abstract
This article explores changing strategies of managerial control in a labour-intensive factory in South China at a time of labour shortage. It describes power relationships between capital and migrant labour under changing labour market conditions, migrant cohorts and global business environment, and analyses a new paternalist managerial strategy named 'humanized management' and workers' reactions to it. Although 'humanized management', as part of East Asian paternalism, advocates mutual respect, care and reciprocity between management and labour, it constructs workers as irresponsible, spoiled children needing to be led, moved, touched, taught and ruled. Its human focus notwithstanding, the new strategy did not result in substantial reforms of managerial despotism, nor did the factory institute any welfare programs for workers. Because of these discrepancies between the ideological avowals and practical application of 'humanized management', the new approach was disregarded by workers, who preferred to rely on individual measures such as threats to quit, or collective action, to win concessions from management. The study provides new insight into the changing relationship between capital and migrant workers in South China and informs the debate in industrial sociology and human resource management research about the efficacy of East Asian paternalist management in improving capital–labour relationships.
Working for two bosses: Student interns as constrained labour in China
Chris Smith and Jenny Chan
Human Relations February 2015 68: 305-326, DOI: 10.1177/0018726714557013
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/2/305?etoc
Abstract
Based on interviews with students and teachers at one electronics company, we analyse the use of student interns to do regular manufacturing work in China. We argue that student workers need to be seen as a distinct category of constrained labour; part of a growing insecure workforce in China. We find that students enrolled in vocational schools are moved into internships, without their consent, to suit the needs of employers. This results in a misalignment between interns and their area of study that invalidates the basic principle of vocational education, which is to combine theory and practice within a sector or occupationally-focused education programme. Teachers in vocational schools follow their students into the factory and become 'teacher-supervisors', receiving a second salary for co-managing the utilization of student interns' labour power. Thus, within such an unfree labour regime, student workers are subject to dual control in the workplace from managerial and teacher-supervisors.
PODCAST: Changing work, labour and employment relations in China
Posted February 2015
http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/d/7/8/d78c801b7bcafc59/Human_Relations_Podcast_9_Labour_in_China.mp3?c_id=8289554&expiration=1423664501&hwt=f38291d19f5ff4702adfb1095aebb312
You might also be interested in:
The impact of China's new Labour Contract Law on socioeconomic outcomes for migrant and urban workers
Zhiming Cheng, Russell Smyth and Fei Guo
Human Relations, first published online ahead of print on October 27, 2014 as DOI: 10.1177/0018726714543480
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/10/23/0018726714543480.abstract
Abstract
This article examines the effect of having a labour contract on a range of employee outcomes (wages, hours worked, social insurance coverage and subjective well-being) for a sample of urban and migrant workers in China using data from the Rural-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) project. Using different methods, we find that the Labour Contract Law has larger effects for urban workers than for migrant workers on receipt of social benefits, subjective well-being and wages, but not for hours worked.
We hope you enjoy reading these articles.
Warm regards,
Claire
Claire Castle
Managing Editor, Human Relations
Email: c.castle@tavinstitute.org
Website: www.humanrelationsjournal.org
OnlineFirst forthcoming articles: http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/recent
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