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

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.

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.

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.

A compelling portrait of migrant worker life in the Pearl River Delta shows that while conditions have improved for some factory workers, for others, that change has come too late. Photograph by Renon-san.

On 28 October, a court in the heart of China’s coal country reduced its original compensation award of 490,000 yuan to a former coal miner suffering from second-stage pneumoconiosis to 270,000 yuan, after the mine owner had refused for nearly a year to comply with the court order.

Three students go “undercover” as migrant workers in Dongguan. Their report details the pay and conditions and the attitude of migrant workers towards employer abuses and their awareness of the law.Photo by Travel Geographer.

As Foxconn plans to move more production inland, workers at its flagship facility in Shenzhen face an uncertain future. Photograph of Shenzhen by Nako

Beijing-based journalist, David Yang recently investigated the case of a battery factory worker in the northeastern province of Jilin who was diagnosed with acute lead poisoning and renal failure but could not get adequate compensation because the authorities, apparently in collusion with his employer, refused to classify his injury as work-related.

Dozens of villages in outer Beijing are due to be demolished to make way for new developments. But the migrant workers and young graduates who live there will get zero compensation for being made homeless. Photo of Tangjialing village.