For more than 20 years, there have been significant changes in China through the implementation of open and reformation policy. In particular since the beginning of the 1990s, Chinese labor market has gradually developed and standardized, based on policy measures of free market economy. With the emergence of new forms of ownership and the intensification of market competition, employment forms have been changed from the lifetime employment to various employment forms. This change has brought challenges both for the government and workers. The government has to adapt to the new situation to standardize labour relations and protect workers` rights and interests. Workers are required to have more employment qualifications such as good education, higher degree or more years of work experience .For instance, as far as educational attainment is concerned, it is more difficult for those with a college or associate degree to find a job than those with a bachelor degree. This phenomenon hardly existed 5 years ago.
In China, flexible employment forms emerged at the end of 1970s and the beginning of 1980s in the context of severe employment situation (i.e., steady-rising unemployment rates). Since then, the adjustment of legal working time and leave and the encouragement of flexible employment have become the main policy direction, and some relevant policies and laws have been set down and implemented. For example, the policy direction concerning“inducing workers to change their employment opinions, adopting flexible forms of employment such as part-time employment and seasonal employment, and promoting self-employment”was clearly outlined in the Tenth Five-year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China (2001). At the national reemployment work conference (2002), the highest leadership in the Chinese government reiterated the importance of flexible employment forms.
In light of these dramatic changes, this report aims to analyze recent developments in working time in China. It will be suggested that, as the economy has undergone transition to market economy in the context of intensified global competition, working time has experienced double pressures: standardization and flexibilization. On the one hand, the standardization of working time through limiting length of working time and providing proper regulatory frameworks concerning how working time should be organized has been well under way; on the other, faced with the increasing importance of securing competitive edge in a globalizing market, the need for flexibilization of working time has gained importance, especially at the workplace level. As a result, working time is increasingly complicated in China, and its implications need to be properly examined from various perspectives.
The systematic review of working time in China is not an easy task, particularly due to the paucity of data and information. In order to overcome this, a new survey has been undertaken in three major cities (Beijing, Guangzhou, Changsha) focusing on both length and organization of working time (see Section 2 for survey details). Some research results and statistical data from National Bureau of statistics of China, Ministry of Labor and Social Security and the academia are also widely used in the study to supplement our survey and also check the reliability of survey results. |
China Institute for Employment Research. All rights reserved.