New Collective Labor Relation Mechanisms in the Workplace: The Collective Contract System in Mainland China

Abstract

The post-Mao labor regime is undergoing a process of significant transformation. The Chinese government and the official trade unions have realized that the issue of labor relations in the workplace cannot simply be solved by traditional administrative measures. Thus, with the hope of smoothing industrial relations, the collective contract system was introduced in the.mid-1990s. The All-China Federation of Trade Unions endorsed the introduction of collective contracts given that the measure should legitimize their existence under the market economy. In fact, the Chinese collective contract system is a system without real collective bargaining. This article aims to explore the implementation process of the collective contract system in mainland China and identify the features. It argues that the collective contract system in mainland China is a special institution promoted mainly by the official trade unions to balance the disturbed management-worker relations at the enterprise level in the context of China’s transition from a planned economy to a socialist market economy. Given the authoritarian nature of the Chinese political regime, this collective contract system is unlikely a movement toward the Western model of labor relations.