Law and Fair Work in China

Author: Sean Cooney; Sarah Biddulph; Ying Zhu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780415674072
Published In: December 2012
Format: Hardback , 194 pages
Jurisdiction: China ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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China’s economic reforms have brought the country both major international clout and widespread domestic prosperity. At the same time, the reforms have led to significant social upheaval, particularly manifest in labour relations. Each year, several thousand disputes break out over working conditions, many of them violent, and the Chinese state has responded with both legal and political strategies.

This book investigates how Chinese governments have used law, and other forms of regulation, to govern working conditions and combat labour disputes. Starting from the early years of the Republican period, the book traces the evolution of the law of work in modern China right up to the reforms of the present day. It considers the structure of Chinese work law, drawing on both Chinese and Western scholarship to provide new insights into its unique features and assess where the law is innovative and where it is stagnant and unresponsive. The authors explore the various legal and extra-legal techniques successive Chinese governments have adopted to enforce work law and the responses of firms, workers and organizations to these practices.

1. Introduction

2. The Actors in PRC Labour Law: The State, its Agents, Workers and Firms

3. Making Labour Law in the PRC: Rights, Policy and the First Wave of Labour Reforms

4. The Failure of Reform: Rising Social Unrest and State Responses to the Crisis

5. The Second Wave of Reforms: New Norms and the Reworking of Compliance

6. The Second Wave in Operation; Labour Policy-makers, Administrators and Judicial Systems

7. The Second Wave in Operation: Evidence from Enterprises and Worker Organisations

8. Conclusion: Regulating for Fair Work in China

9. Appendix:

Stories of Reform: Case Studies from Chinese Labour Law Scholars

Sean Cooney is an Associate Professor at the Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Australia.

Sarah Biddulph is Associate Professor and Reader in the Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne, Australia.