Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T06:29:54.269Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Impact of the 2008 Labor Contract Law on Labor Disputes in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2016

Thomas F. Remington  and
Xiao Wen Cui
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

China's Labor Contract Law came into force on January 1, 2008. One of several important legislative acts aimed at improving the processing of labor grievances through mediation, arbitration, and litigation, and averting collective labor protest, it provides that all employed persons must work under written individual employment contracts. We evaluate the legislation's impact nationally and by province for the years before and after the law's adoption. Observing that the law's effect varied substantially across provinces, we estimate the effects of the law, controlling for time, development level, export intensity, and migrant labor share, on the volume of disputes by province using a cross-sectional time series design. We also examine the law's impact on the incidence of collective disputes and the grounds for disputes. We find that the law significantly increased the volume of labor disputes, raising questions about the relative costliness of the government's strategy for managing employment relations.

Keywords

ChinaLabor Contract Lawlabor relationslabor disputesmediationarbitrationlitigation
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , August 2015 , pp. 271 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © East Asia Institute 

References

Becker, Jeffrey, and Elfstrom, Manfred. 2010. “The Impact of China's Labor Contract Law on Workers.” International Labor Rights Forum , May 12.Google Scholar
Brown, Ronald C. 2010. Understanding Labor and Employment Law in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cai, Fang, and Wang, Meiyan. 2012. “Labour Market Chances, Labour Disputes and Social Cohesion in China.” OECD Development Centre, Working Paper No. 307.Google Scholar
Chan, Jenny. 2009. “Meaningful Progress or Illusory Reform? Analyzing China's Labor Contract Law.” New Labor Forum 18, 2: 43–51.Google Scholar
Chen, Feng. 2007. “Individual Rights and Collective Rights: Labor's Predicament in China.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 40: 59–79.Google Scholar
Chen, Yu-Fu, and Funke, Michael. 2008. “China's New Labour Contract Law: No Harm to Employment?” Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE), SIRE-DP-2008-51 (August).Google Scholar
China Daily. 2013. “1,340 Rescued from Forced Labor,” August 8. www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-08/13/content_6024799.htm (accessed February 25, 2015).Google Scholar
China 2030. See World Bank and the People's Republic of China Development Research Center of the State Council.Google Scholar
Cooney, Sean. 2007. “China's Labour Law, Compliance and Flaws in Implementing Institutions.” Journal of Industrial Relations 49, 5: 673–686.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooney, Sean, Biddulph, Sarah, Kungang, Li, and Zhu, Ying. 2007. “China's New Labour Contract Law: Responding to the Growing Complexity of Labour Relations in the PRC.” UNSW Law Journals (University of New South Wales) 30, 3: 786–801.Google Scholar
Economist. 2015. “Out Brothers, Out!,” January 15.Google Scholar
Edin, Maria. 2003. “State Capacity and Local Agent Control in China: CCP Cadre Management from a Township Perspective.” China Quarterly 173: 35–52.Google Scholar
Freeman, Richard B., and Li, Xiaoying. 2013. “How Does China's New Labor Contract Law Affect Floating Workers?” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series (19253).Google Scholar
Gallagher, Mary E. 2014. “China's Workers Movements and the End of the Rapid-Growth Era.” Daedalus 143, 2: 81–95.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Mary E., and Dong, Baohua. 2011. “Legislating Harmony: Labour Law Reform in Contemporary China.” In From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization: Markets, Workers, and the State in a Changing China , ed. Kuruvilla, Sarosh, Lee, Ching Kwan, and Gallagher, Mary E. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Mary E., Giles, John, Park, Albert, and Wang, Meiyan. 2013. “China's 2008 Labor Contract Law: Implementation and Implications for China's Workers.” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 6542.Google Scholar
“Guangdong Provincial Regulation on Collective Contracts for Enterprises.” 2014. www.gdrd.cn/gdrdfb/ggtz/201409/t201440928_142698.html (accessed August 14, 2014).Google Scholar
Halegua, Aaron. 2007. “The Debate over Raising Chinese Labor Standards Goes International.” Harvard Law and Policy Review , April 5. http://ssrn.com/abstract=2475465.Google Scholar
Ho, Virginia E. Harper. 2009. “From Contracts to Compliance? An Early Look at Implementation Under China's New Labor Legislation.” Columbia Journal of Asian Law 23, 1: 36–107.Google Scholar
Josephs, Hilary K. 2009. “Measuring Progress Under China's Labor Law: Goals, Processes, Outcomes.” Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal 30, 2: 373–394.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Pan, Jennifer, and Roberts, Margaret E. 2013. “How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression.” American Political Science Review 107, 2: 326–343.Google Scholar
Kuruvilla, Sarosh, Lee, Ching Kwan, and Gallagher, Mary E., eds. 2011. From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization: Markets, Workers, and the State in a Changing China. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Ching Kwan. 2007. Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Ching Kwan, and Zhang, Yonghong. 2013. “The Power of Instability: The Microfoundations of Bargained Authoritarianism in China.” American Journal of Sociology 118, 6: 1475–1508.Google Scholar
Li, Hongbin, and Zhou, Li-An. 2005. “Political Turnover and Economic Performance.” Journal of Public Economics 89, 9–10: 1743–1762.Google Scholar
Li, Jing. 2008. “China's New Labor Contract Law and Protection of Workers.” Fordham International Law Journal 32, 3: 1083–1131.Google Scholar
Liu, Mingwei. 2014. “Conflict Resolution in China.” In The Oxford Handbook of Conflict Management in Organizations , ed. Roche, William K., Teague, Paul, and Colvin, Alexander J. S., 488–513. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Liu, Mingwei, and Li, Chunyun. 2014. “The Puzzle of Strong Union Effects on Workers in China.” Working paper, Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations.Google Scholar
Lü, Xiaobo, and Perry, Elizabeth J., eds. 1997. Danwei: The Changing Chinese Workplace in Historical and Comparative Perspective. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Lu, Yi, Tao, Zhigang, and Wang, Yijiang. 2010. “Union Effects on Performance and Employment Relations: Evidence from China.” China Economic Review 21: 202–210.Google Scholar
Pringle, Tim. 2011. Trade Unions in China: The Challenge of Labour Unrest. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pringle, Tim, and Clarke, Simon. 2011. The Challenge of Transition: Trade Unions in Russia, China and Vietnam. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Pun, Ngai, and Lu, Huilin. 2010. “A Culture of Violence: The Labor Subcontracting System and Collective Action by Construction Workers in Post-Socialist China.” China Journal 64: 143–158.Google Scholar
Solinger, Dorothy J. 1999. Contesting Citizenship in Urban China: Peasant Migrants, the State, and the Logic of the Market. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Solinger, Dorothy J. 2007. “Labor Discontent in China in Comparative Perspective.” Eurasian Geography and Economics 48, 4: 413–438.Google Scholar
Saich, Tony. 2008. “The Changing Role of Urban Government.” In China Urbanizes: Consequences, Strategies, and Policies , ed. Yusuf, Shahid and Saich, Tony, 181–206. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Su, Yang, and He, Xin. 2010. “Street as Courtroom: State Accommodation of Labor Protest in South China.” Law and Society Review 44, 1: 157–184.Google Scholar
Tomba, Luigi. 2002. Paradoxes of Labour Reform: Chinese Labour Theory and Practice from Socialism to Market. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Walder, Andrew G. 1986. Communist Neo-Traditionalism: Work and Authority in Chinese Industry. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Fei-Ling. 2005. Organizing Through Division and Exclusion. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Haiyan, Appelbaum, Richard P., Degiuli, Francesca, Lichtenstein, Nelson. 2009. “China's New Labour Contract Law: Is China Moving Towards Increased Power for Workers?” Third World Quarterly 30, 3: 485–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jing, Wang. 2012. “Collective Consultation and Labor's Collective Rights in China.” ILERA 16th World Congress.Google Scholar
Warner, Malcolm, and Zhu, Ying. 2010. “Labour and Management in the People's Republic of China: Seeking the ‘Harmonious Society.’” Asia Pacific Business Review 16, 3: 285–298.Google Scholar
World Bank and the People's Republic of China Development Research Center of the State Council. 2012. China 2030: Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative High-Income Society. Washington, DC: World Bank (cited as China 2030).Google Scholar
Yao, Yang, and Zheng, Muyang. 2011. “Subnational Leaders and Economic Growth: Evidence from Chinese Cities.” China Center for Economic Research, Working Paper Series.Google Scholar
Yao, Yang, and Zhong, Ninghua. 2013. “Unions and Workers' Welfare in China.” Journal of Labor Economics 31, 3: 633–667.Google Scholar
Zhang, Lu. 2011. “The Paradox of Labor Force Dualism and State-Labor-Capital Relations in the Chinese Automobile Industry.” In From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization: Markets, Workers, and the State in a Changing China , ed. Kuruvilla, Sarosh, Lee, Ching Kwan, and Gallagher, Mary E., 107–137. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univeristy Press.Google Scholar
Zhao, Yun. 2009. “China's New Labor Dispute Resolution Law: A Catalyst for the Establishment of Harmonious Labor Relationship?” Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal 30: 409–430.Google Scholar