Workers' rights and the law
- By Heiko Khoo
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 5, 2014
In an economy dominated by capitalist companies market conditions determine the wages of workers, so wages will rise and fall with changes in the demand for labor. However, workers' wages in China have risen constantly, regardless of labor market conditions (See chart below).
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The chart above shows the rising wages of urban staff and workers (formally employed workers) from 1995-2012. Data source: China's National Bureau of Statistics. http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2013/html/Z0411E.HTM |
Between 1995 and 2014 China experienced two periods of mass redundancies: from 1998-2001 tens of millions of jobs were lost at state enterprises; and from 2008-9 about 20 million private sector jobs were lost; but wages kept rising throughout. This contradicts the dominant theory that a recent structural shortage of workers explains China's rising wages. In fact, there is only a shortage of workers because China's economy is expanding rapidly to fulfill state planning objectives. If China were to privatize its state owned banks and enterprises the economy would fall under the spell of the capitalist economic laws. Then, a sharp fall in the rate of economic growth would create a "reserve army of labor." So, if the planning system is subordinated to the market, wages will fall.
In China, there is a division within the working class between those with urban and rural residency status. The present urbanization plan will extend full urban rights to 100 million migrant workers by 2020. Since 2011 tens of millions of apartments for social housing have been built and millions more are in construction. The requisite "hardware" infrastructure of schools, hospitals, transportation etc. is already being assembled. The corresponding human "software" has to be formed out of the democratic will of the people.
Bold experiments are required in democratic control over the administration of work and community life. Many of these forms may appear to emerge "spontaneously" from workers' struggles. This will inevitably create friction, particularly with lower level bureaucratic and private interests which are used to fixed patterns of work and organization; and will clash with cozy illicit relations between private interests and local governments. The trade unions and the Communist Party should champion these new forms of democratic control. These will lay the basis for a happy, prosperous and harmonious urban life that caters for a multitude of organic trends and fashions, present and future.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://china.org.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm
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