Collective Contracts in Chinese Enterprises: A New Brand of Collective Bargaining under 'Market Socialism'?

• Published in: British journal of industrial relations Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 295 - 314
• Main Authors: Warner, Malcolm, Sek-Hong, Ng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK and Boston, USA Blackwell Publishers Ltd 01.06.1999; Blackwell; London School of Economics; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Collective bargaining; Labor contracts; Labor law; Labor relations; Professional relations. Trade unions; Socialism; Sociology; Sociology of work; Sociology of work and sociology of organizations; Studies; China PR; China; Professional Relation; Public Enterprise; Enterprise; Collective Bargaining; Employment Policy; Reform; Employment contract; Labour Law
• ISSN: 0007-1080; 1467-8543
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-8543.00128

As China reforms its legislation and institutions to best fit the requirements of an emerging labour market, it has instituted both individual and collective contracts in a range of industrial enterprises. We describe the ‘benchmarks’ against which such nascent Chinese collective bargaining may be compared, followed by a detailed examination of contracts and the context in which they are found. We conclude that collective contracts have been more widely implemented in state‐owned enterprises than in foreign‐funded ones and that such contracts may need to be made more ‘user‐friendly’ to the latter if they are to become more generally adopted.