Implementing ILO Fundamental Labour Rights in China: A Sensitive Meeting of Form and Substance?

Abstract

This chapter examines the extent to which there can be said to have been implementation into Chinese labour law of “fundamental labour rights” within a framework of the ILO’s international standard-setting activities. Against a background of dramatic developments for labour law in the People's Republic of China (PRC)over the past two decades, modern arrangements for monitoring, supervising and enforcing labour rights are considered from both institutional and normative perspectives. The relationship between China and the ILO is explored from its nationalist pre-1949 origins through to resumption of active PRC engagement with international standard-setting after 1983. Consideration is given to formal ratification of “core” ILO Conventions, although it is stressed that merely compiling an “inventory” of PRC ratifications in this regard fails to reflect the extent to which Chinese labour law derives inspiration from a broader range of ILO instruments and international experience. There is clear evidence of influence from the international level upon the content and formulation of modern PRC labour law provisions. Consequently, the enquiry into whether, how, and to what extent the PRC implements ILO-inspired (or any other) labour rights, has to be directed to the effectiveness of the domestic framework for monitoring, supervising, and enforcing labour law rights generally. While there has been significant progress in relation to delivering “individual employment rights”, the same cannot be said in relation to “collective labour rights” in the “Western” sense. The chapter concludes by reflecting upon the prospects for further progress through what is now widely described in terms of “social management” for the PRC.