CLB translates two Chinese media accounts of labour disputes that give a detailed insight into how China's embryonic collective bargaining process is beginning to develop. Photo by attack the darkeness@flickr.com

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.

Determination, patience and considerable ingenuity were required by a group of workers at a sports equipment manufacturer in Shenzhen just to get their boss to the negotiating table. SJ Photography.

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

Chengguan, the low-level law-enforcement officers tasked with keeping order on city streets, are probably the most reviled group of workers in China today. But now many are now claiming they are more sinned against than sinners.

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.

The death of Pan Jie, a 25-year-old auditor at the Shanghai branch of PricewaterhouseCoopers, last month ignited a vociferous debate in the Chinese media on the work pressures felt by young urban professionals.