Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x24gv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-10T13:25:19.672Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Trapped in Precariousness: Migrant Agency Workers in China's State-owned Enterprises

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2019

Xiaojun Feng
Xiaojun Feng*
Affiliation:
College of Humanities and Development Studies, Chinese Agricultural University, Beijing, China. Email: xiaojun.fengg@gmail.com.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article develops an integrated perspective to study whether formalization can significantly reduce precariousness for informal workers. This perspective combines the analysis of employment dualism with that of rural–urban dualism and the analysis of the production sphere with that of the social reproduction sphere. By applying this integrated framework to the case of a state-owned enterprise (SOE) in China, this article finds that formalization does little to reduce precariousness for the migrant agency workers there. Migrant agency workers in China are in a precarious position not only because of their employment status but also because of their incomplete citizenship and the commodification of social reproduction materials. With the compensation gap between formal and agency workers narrowed primarily owing to the deterioration of formal employment, formalization has little effect on increasing the income of agency workers or alleviating the financial pressure upon them in the sphere of social reproduction; neither can formalization raise migrants up to full citizenship or reduce related precariousness.

摘要

本文提出了一个分析转正是否能显著降低非正规工人不安全性的综合视角。这个视角一方面结合了对就业二元制和城乡二元制的分析，另一方面结合了对生产领域和再生产领域的分析。通过应用这个视角分析中国一家国有企业的案例，本文发现转正对降低派遣农民工的不安全性效果有限。中国派遣农民工的脆弱境况不仅与其非正规就业有关，同时与其公民权缺失和再生产领域的商品化有关。随着国企正式工处境的恶化，正式工与派遣工的收入差距在缩小。转正难以显著提高派遣工的收入以缓解其在再生产领域的财务压力。转正也无法赋予其完整的公民权以减少与此相关的不安全性。

Keywords

agency workerslabour dispatchprecariousnessformalizationSOEs派遣工劳务派遣不安全性转正国企
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 238 , June 2019 , pp. 396 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ACFTU (All-China Federation of Trades Unions). 2012. “Dangqian woguo laowu paiqian yonggong xianzhuang diaocha” (An investigation on labour dispatch in present-day China). Zhongguo laodong (5), 23–25.Google Scholar
Anderson, Bridget. 2010. “Migration, immigration controls and the fashioning of precarious workers.” Work, Employment and Society 24(2), 300–317.Google Scholar
Booth, Alison L., Francesconi, Marco and Frank, Jeff. 2002. “Temporary jobs: stepping stones or dead ends?” The Economic Journal 112(480), 189–213.Google Scholar
Breman, Jan, and van der Linden, Marcel. 2014. “Informalizing the economy: the return of the social question at a global level.” Development and Change 45(5), 920–940.Google Scholar
Burgess, John, and Campbell, Iain. 1998. “The nature and dimensions of precarious employment in Australia.” Labour and Industry 8(3), 5–21.Google Scholar
Cai, Fang. 2007. “Zhongguo jingji mianlin de zhuanzhe jiqidui fazhan he gaige de tiaozhan” (The turning point confronting the Chinese economy and its challenge for development and reform). Zhongguo shehui kexue (3), 4–12.Google Scholar
Cairns, Daniel S.S. 2015. “New formalities for casual labor: addressing unintended consequences of China's Labor Contract Law.” Washington International Law Journal 24(1), 219–252.Google Scholar
Chan, Jenny, Ngai, Pun and Selden, Mark. 2013. “The politics of global production: Apple, Foxconn and China's new working class.” New Technology, Work and Employment 28(2), 100–115.Google Scholar
Chen, Yiu Por Vincent, and Chan, Anita. 2018. “Regular and agency workers: attitudes and resistance in Chinese auto joint ventures.” The China Quarterly 223(1), 85–110.Google Scholar
Ciett (International Confederation of Private Employment Services). 2015. “The 2015 Ciett economic report (based on 2013 data),” http://www.wecglobal.org/fileadmin/templates/ciett/docs/Stats/Economic_report_2015/CIETT_ER2015.pdf. Accessed 10 March 2017.Google Scholar
Cook, Sarah. 2008. “The challenge of informality: perspectives on China's changing labour market.” IDS Bulletin 39(2), 48–56.Google Scholar
Deloitte and Development and Research Center of the State Post Bureau. 2014. “Zhongguo kuaidi hangye fazhan baogao 2014” (China express industry development report 2014), https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Consumer-Business/gx-cb-chinas-express-sector-chinese.pdf. Accessed 10 March 2017.Google Scholar
Department of Sociology, Tsinghua University. 2013. “Duangonghua: nongmingong jiuye qushi yanjiu” (The shortening of job duration: research on trends in migrant workers’ employment). Tsinghua Sociological Review 6, 5–8.Google Scholar
Friedman, Andrew L. 1977. Industry and Labour: Class Struggle at Work and Monopoly Capitalism. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Mary, Giles, John, Park, Albert and Wang, Meiyan. 2015. “China's 2008 Labor Contract Law: implementation and implications for China's workers.” Human Relations 68(2), 197–235.Google Scholar
Harriss-White, Barbara. 2010. “Work and wellbeing in informal economies: the regulative roles of institutions of identity and the state.” World Development 38(2), 170–183.Google Scholar
Hart, Keith. 1973. “Informal income opportunities and urban employment in Ghana.” Journal of Modern African Studies 11(1), 61–89.Google Scholar
Hu, Zhongyuan (eds.). 2004. Beijing zhi: youzheng zhi (Beijing Chorography: Postal Chorography). Beijing: Beijing Press.Google Scholar
Huang, Philip C.C. 2009. “China's neglected informal economy: reality and theory.” Modern China 35(4), 405–438.Google Scholar
Huang, Philip C.C. 2017a. “Dispatch work in China: a study from case records, part I.” Modern China 43(3), 1–41.Google Scholar
Huang, Philip C.C. 2017b. “Dispatch work in China: a study from case records, part II.” Modern China 43(4), 355–396.Google Scholar
ILO (International Labour Organization). 2016. “Non-standard employment around the world: understanding challenges, shaping prospects,” http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/publication/wcms_534326.pdf. Accessed 5 October 2017.Google Scholar
Jia, Wenjuan. 2015. “Shuangchong dazhuanxing xiade guoyou gongye qiye shengchan moshi bianqian” (The changing production mode of state industrial enterprises under double transformations). Kaifang shidai (3), 64–77.Google Scholar
Jonna, R. Jamil, and Foster, John Bellamy. 2016. “Marx's theory of working-class precariousness: its relevance today.” Monthly Review 67(11), 21–45.Google Scholar
Kalleberg, Arne L. 2009. “Precarious work, insecure workers: employment relations in transition.” American Sociological Review 74(1), 1–22.Google Scholar
Kalleberg, Arne L. 2012. “Job quality and precarious work: clarifications, controversies, and challenges.” Work and Occupations 39(4), 427–448.Google Scholar
Kuruvilla, Sarosh, Lee, Ching Kwan and Gallagher, Mary. 2016. From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization: Markets, Workers, and the State in a Changing China. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Lapavitsas, Costas. 2009. “Financialised capitalism: crisis and financial expropriation.” Historical Materialism 17(2), 114–148.Google Scholar
Lewis, W. Arthur. 1954. “Economic development with unlimited supplies of labour.” The Manchester School 22(2), 139–191.Google Scholar
Lüthje, Boy, Luo, Siqi and Zhang, Hao. 2013. Beyond the Iron Rice Bowl: Regimes of Production and Industrial Relations in China. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag.Google Scholar
Maloney, William. 2004. “Informality revisited.” World Development 32(7), 1159–78.Google Scholar
Meng, Jie, and Li, Yile. 2013. “Gaige yilai laodongli shangpinhua he guyong guanxi de fazhan” (The commodification of labour and the development of employment relations since reform). Kaifang shidai (5), 74–106.Google Scholar
Munck, Ronaldo. 2013. “The Precariat: a view from the South.” Third World Quarterly 34(5), 747–762.Google Scholar
Picot, Georg, and Tassinari, Arianna. 2014. “Liberalization, dualization, or recalibration? Labor market reforms under austerity, Italy and Spain 2010–2012.” Nuffield College Working Paper in Politics, https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/media/1741/picottassinari-labor-market-reforms-under-austerity.pdf. Accessed 29 June 2017.Google Scholar
Prosser, Thomas. 2016. “Dualization or liberalization? Investigating precarious work in eight European countries.” Work, Employment and Society 30(6), 949–965.Google Scholar
So, Juliana. 2014. “Exploring the plight of dispatch workers in China and how to improve their conditions: a preliminary study.” Working USA 17(4), 531–552.Google Scholar
Solinger, Dorothy L. 1999. Contesting Citizenship in Urban China: Peasant Migrants, the State, and the Logic of the Market. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Standing, Guy. 2011. The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.Google Scholar
State Post Bureau of the PRC. 2016. “2015 nian youzheng hangye fazhang tongji baogong” (China postal industry development annual report 2015), 5 October, http://www.spb.gov.cn/dtxx_15079/201605/t20160510_757698.html. Accessed 10 March 2017.Google Scholar
Vosko, Leah F. 2000. Temporary Work: The Gendered Rise of a Precarious Employment Relationship. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Walder, Andrew G. 1988. Communist Neo-Traditionalism: Work and Authority in Chinese Industry. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Zhang, Lu. 2008. “Lean production and labor controls in the Chinese automobile industry in an age of globalization.” International Labor and Working-Class History 73(1), 24–44.Google Scholar