Employmentweb_low

EmpLoymEnT, work, And HEALTH inEquALiTiES - a global perspective
Case study 7. Privatisation, working conditions, labour movement and worker protests in China. - emconet*
the turn of the millennium saw a massive sell-off of state assets in china, which led to the number of private enterprises
tripling from 440,000 to 1.32 million between 1996 and 2001, reaching 5 million in 2006. by the end of thar year, private
enterprises accounted for approximately two thirds of gdp and 70-80 per cent of economic growth. the closure and merger of
hundreds of thousands of state-owned enterprises in the mid- and late-1990s has had a number of important consequences.
First, millions of laid-off workers demanded re-employment at their former company or to be granted formal retirement. Workers
found it increasingly difficult to find re-employment, and those that did find jobs usually obtained low-paid, temporary employment and soon
became unemployed again. this process took place in a context in which managers or local governments refused to strictly implement
central government policy regarding restructuring, or reneged on promises made during restructuring, leading to workers' protests.
second, it initiated a rapid decline in the standard of living for a large number of workers after they were laid-off, and a widening
gap between the rich and the poor. While in 1978 urban income was 2.6 times rural income, the gap expanded to 3.3 times rural
income in 2006. taking into account that rural residents basically have no social security or welfare benefits, the actual urban-rural
income gap is probably six to one, in favour of urban income. From 1985 to 2002, the absolute difference in annual income between
the highest and lowest income groups increased 20.6 times.
a third consequence is the growth of worker protests as a response to unemployment, low wages or the non-payment of wages,
exploitation, and the violation of labour laws and regulations with regard to employment and working conditions, particularly in the case
of migrant workers. in 2006, only 53.7 per cent of migrant workers had signed job contracts with their employers, 30.6 per cent had not
signed contracts, and 15.7 per cent of the workers did not know what a labour contract was. over 35 per cent of workers were only
occasionally paid on time, and 15.7 per cent usually had their payment delayed. migrant workers worked an average of 6.3 days per week,
for about 9 hours per day. only 11.9 per cent had a two-day weekend, 46 per cent had not signed a contract or agreement, 14.9 per cent
were unable to obtain their wages on time, 50.1 per cent worked overtime with no overtime compensation, 57.2 per cent did not receive
compensation for work-related injuries, 79.5 per cent received no paid vacation, 92.4 per cent did not receive a housing subsidy, 79.8 per
cent of female migrant workers received no maternity leave, and over 70 per cent had no social security plan.
over the last few years, china has been characterised by continued mass disputes undertaken by laid-off urban workers and, since
2002, by the protests of migrant workers caused by the violation of their rights, low wages and failure to receive wages on time, hazardous
working conditions, excessive overtime, and intimidation. From 1994 to 2004, the number of collective labour dispute cases handled by
labour dispute arbitration committees and the number of workers involved in such cases increased substantially year by year. moreover,
mass protests by workers such as demonstrations, sit-ins, strikes and so forth also increased greatly during the same period. it is estimated
that between 1993 and 2003 the number of mass protests in china grew each year from 10,000 to 60,000, with a corresponding increase in
the number of participants each year, from 730,000 to 3.1 million. For example, on 27 July 2005, over 500 employees at dongzhi dalian ltd.
went on strike to protest arbitrary increases in the speed of the production line and low wages. this action prompted strikes by workers at
other Japanese-invested firms in the dalian enterprise Zone such as mitsubishi, toshiba, nec electronics, nissin and asahi. in total, more
than 30,000 workers at a dozen companies went on strike.
in 2003, the central government introduced a number of measures designed to improve the living and working conditions of
rural migrant workers in the cities. Just a few years later, however, there was little evidence that these measures had taken effect.
in many cases, many local governments still adopted repressive measures, and management often used the technique of "divide
and rule" to weaken disputes. the chinese government has not addressed the root causes of social unrest, namely corruption,
social injustice and income inequality, nor has it given the chinese people more freedom of speech or the right of assembly.
transnational companies' codes of conduct may have helped to improve working conditions at some factories. however,
much like the government's collective contracts programme, corporate codes of conduct have largely been imposed on
factories in a top-down manner and without the involvement of the workforce. although corporate social responsibility could
in theory help the development of workers' rights in china, these practices have yet to significantly improve working
conditions or relations between labour and management as a whole. reasons for the ineffectiveness of these practices stem
from the fact that they are not a genuine move towards increasing the empowerment and participation of workers.
since the 1990s, the chinese government and the all-china Federation of trade unions (acFtu) have developed a basic legal,
regulatory and administrative framework for promoting the collective labour contract system. collective contracts can help
empower workers and encourage them to stand up for their legal rights, while at the same time enhancing labour-management
relations. the implementation of the new labour contract law from January 2008 onwards may further strengthen the legal
framework and create a generally beneficial policy environment for undertaking individual and collective contract negotiations. thus
far, however, because of the lack of genuine worker participation in contract negotiations, they have brought only limited benefit to
china's workers. collective contracts directly negotiated by democratically-elected workers' representatives will not only help
realise the aims and objectives of corporate codes of conduct, but will also have the crucial advantage of being legally enforceable.
Free collective bargaining should be introduced into the collective contracts negotiating process as a means of not only protecting
workers' rights and interests but also of improving labour-management relations. given the widespread abuse of workers' rights
and the often severe tensions that exist between labour and management in china today, there is now an increasingly urgent need
to promote greater worker involvement in this process. the challenge for china's labour movement is to give real substance to this
126