During the run-up to the Spring Festival holiday, government and trade union officials were once again prioritizing the resolution of labour disputes, to ensure that migrant workers could return home with at least some of the pay owed to them by employers. In December 2011, at least eight government departments issued notices demanding that employers pay their workers on time, and the national trade union urged local unions to mobilize and prioritize legal assistance for migrant workers in these matters

Around nine million students graduate each year from China’s vocational schools and colleges. They hope for a decent job with good prospects but all too often end up working on the factory production line. Even before they graduate, students are routinely exploited when deployed, for up to one year of their studies, as interns

As labour unrest continues to rise, the Chinese government has unveiled a new set of regulations that it hopes will enhance the labour dispute resolution process. Photo by attack the darkness @flickr.com

Over the past decade or more, watchdogs of corporate activity, governments, business leaders and non-governmental organizations have all struggled with how best to deal with human rights abuses caused by business activities. One response has been the Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) movement. A plethora of CSR actors now exist: with a wide array of codes of conduct, multi-stakeholder initiatives, and labelling schemes. And although the CSR movement has made many positive contributions, it is now at a turning point.

China Labour Bulletin’s fourth in-depth report on the workers’ movement examines the trends and developments in worker activism in China from 2009 to 2011. Photo by Chad Ingraham available at flickr.com

China is by far the most important supplier of “trainees” to Japan’s exploitative, low-paid labour intensive industries. Photo of Mt Fuji by mick62@flicker.com under a creative commons license.

While wages for production line workers have increased by nearly 50 percent over the last two years, wages for office workers and those in the service sector have remained relatively static in real terms. Photo by Chad Ingraham.

How Chinese workers are recruited to work in Singapore, the working conditions and discrimination they endure, and how, when no longer needed, they are sent back to China. Photo of workers in Singapore by dominiqueb available at flickr.com.

It is wage arrears season again in China, and government officials are trying to ensure that as many workers as possible get the wages owed to them before the lunar New Year holiday. Photo courtesy attack the darkness available at flickr.com under a creative commons license.

Strikes and increases in the minimum wage of more than 20% have eased some of the pressure felt by China’s poorest paid workers this year but their income is still far from being a decent wage. Photo. S J Photography.