The Non-precariat in the Informal Sector A study of female-led cooperative production team in garment industry of China Fan Lulu & Pun Ngai Department.

The Non-precariat in the Informal Sector

A study of female-led cooperative production team in garment industry of

China

Fan Lulu & Pun Ngai

Department of Applied Social Sciences The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

1 Female workers in the informal sector 1.1 Informality as a tendency in the globalization era

1.2 Informal employment and female workers

2 Research Methodology 2.1 Industry selection 2.2 Research sites and research method 2.3 The overview of the research object

3 Research findings 3.1 Why workers have choices? 3.2 The reason to work in informal sector 3.3 The self-organizing of workers in informal sector

4 Discussion and conclusions 4.1 The gendered structural power 4.2 Class, gender, localism and workers’ associational

power

Outline

1 Female workers in the informal sector

4

1.1 Informality as a tendency in the globalization era

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Source: Hu, 2002; Huang, 2013

The scale of informal employment in China

1.2.Informal employment and female workers

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Source: http://wiego.org/informal-economy/wiego-network-holistic-framework

It seems that women have more possibilities to drift into precariat than men.

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According to our study of garment industry in Yangtze River Delta Region (YRD in short) of China, we find that many workers who possess stronger marketing bargaining power choose to work in informal sector voluntarily.

Some local, skilled women workers organize cooperative production teams to enhance their associational power.

They launch collective bargaining with agents who subcontract production orders to them and obtain

higher wages than regular workers in formal sector.

This study may provide some insights on the following questions:

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The reasons why workers become informal labors;

Whether informal workers always earn fewer for the same position than their formal counterparts; and

How could female workers in the informal sector protect their rights and benefits

2. Research Methodology

2.1. Why study garment sector?

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2.1.1.The prevalence of informal employment in garment industry

2.1.2. Garment is a female-dominated industry

in China

04/18/23 Source: China Labour Statistical Yearbook (2004--2013)

2.2. Research sites and research method

2.2.1.Pilot study in six cities of YRD (from December 2011 to August 2012)

The existed researches about Chinese garment industry mainly focus on the Pearl River Delta (Pun, 1994; Ren and Pun, 2006; Gao, 2006; Pun and Smith, 2007; Chan and Siu, 2009; Liu, 2011; Huang, 2012). Little is known about the situation of Yangtze River Delta Regions.

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The six categories of China’s garment workers by the nature of production organization

Types of workers

Regular workers

Workers under

contractor managem

ent system

Workers of

cooperative

production team

Individual outsourced worker

Wage earners in workshop

s

Home workers

Areal Distributio

n

Jiaxing, HangzhouShanghai,Ningbo

, Shaoxing,Huzhou

Jiaxing,

Hangzhou,

Shanghai,

Huzhou

Jiaxing Jiaxing,

Hangzhou

Jiaxing, Hangzhou

, Shanghai,

Ningbo, Shaoxing,

Huzhou

Jiaxing, Hangzhou

, Shanghai,

Ningbo, Shaoxing,

Huzhou

The Organization of Production in Jiaxing

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Oversea Buyer or domestic market

Regular workers

Individual outsourced worker

Workers of cooperative production team team

Workers under contractor management system management system

First tier factories

Second tier factories Second tier workshops Second tier factories

Wage earner

Third tier small garment workshops

Family member

work in

workshop

Third tier small garment workshops

Workers under contractor management system

Third tier small garment workshops

Workers of cooperative production team

Home workers Home workers Home workers

2.2.2. Investigation in Jiaxing and Shanghai

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In January 2013, 121 garment factory workers’ questionnaires were collected in Shanghai and Jiaxing. Many of our interviewees work in large factories.

The findings show the working conditions of employees in the formal sector.

2.2.3. Fieldwork study in Jiaxing, Huzhou and Hangzhou

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From March to August 2013, Fan Lulu did the participant observation investigation in two factories in Jiaxing. The subcontracted workshops and home workers working for these two factories as well as small workshops in Huzhou and Hangzhou were also studied in this period.

More than 15 production units and 640 workers are involved in the participant observation and investigation.

2.3 The overview of the research object

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Categories of

production units

Region

Distribution

Contractors’

workshops

Workshops constituted

by family members and

wage earners

Cooperative

production team

Home worker Total

Units’

number

Workers’

number

Units’

number

Workers’

number

Units’

number

Workers’

number

Units’

number

Workers’

number

Units’

number

Workers’

number

Shanghai 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2+1 2 3

Hangzhou 0 0 1 6 0 0 2 2+1 3 9

Jiaxing 2 14+10 1 9 2 6+6 3 1+1+1 8 48

Huzhou 0 0 1 10 0 0 0 0 1 10

Total 2 24 3 25 2 12 7 9 14 70

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Contractors’ workshops

Workshops constituted by family members and wage earners

Cooperative production team

Home worker

The number of workers

10-20 <10 6-8 1 or 2

The production activities

The whole clothes

The whole/ parts of the clothes

The whole clothes

The whole/ parts of the clothes, thread cutting

The space for production and living

Different Same Workers live in their own homes. The workplace may be one of the workers' home.

Same

Personal relationships in the organization

Hierarchical Hierarchical Equal and co-operative

Individual one/ family members.

3. Research findings

3.1. Why workers have choices?

Since 2010, in a national level of China, the demand/supply ratios in labor market continue to be above 1 (Cai, 2013). In the first quarter of 2014, the demand/supply ratio is 1.11 in China, which means on average when there are 111 vacancies, only 100 job seeker apply for them. Meanwhile, 97.5% of the demands are concentrated in enterprises.

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Labor shortage in labor intensive industries like garment is very serious, especially in coastal areas .

According to the data of the Jiaxing labour market report, the demand/supply ratio of cutting and stitching worker is 2.99 in 2011 and 2.45 in 2013. Males take up 53.18% of the applicants.

These data indicate skilled women workers possessing strong marketing bargaining power.

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The all-round skilled workers in informal sector

Space of work Average years of working in

garment industry (For working

year in both of factory and

non-factory unit )

Contractors’ workshops in Jiaxing (14 workers) 6.2

Workshops constituted by family members and wage earners in

Huzhou (10 workers)

8.6

Cooperative production teamⅠ in Jiaxing (6 workers) 22.3

Cooperative production team Ⅱ in Jiaxing (6 workers) 25.2

3.2. Reasons for working in informal sector

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1 ） For a higher wages

According to investigations’ data of 121 factory garment workers in Shanghai and Jiaxing, the mean of workers’ average month wage of last year is 2684.59 RMB (about 26846 rupee).

When divide the average monthly wage by the 12.5 hours a day and 26 days a month, a common working time arrangement in garment factories of YRD, the average hourly wage is 8.26 RMB (about 82.6 rupee).

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Activities Production organizations Average hourly wage (RMB)

Knitting Sweater with machine

Jiaxing Home worker 29

Sewing the whole clothing Huzhou Workshops constituted by family members and wage earners

17.1-21.4

Sewing the whole clothing Jiaxing Producers’ cooperative 14.5-18.6 Sewing the whole clothing Hangzhou Workshops constituted by family

members and wage earners14.2-17.9

Sewing the whole clothing Hangzhou Home worker 12.3Sewing the whole clothing Jiaxing Contractors’ workshops 10.8-11.5Sewing the whole clothing Shanghai Home worker 11Sewing parts of clothes Jiaxing Home worker 10Sewing parts of clothes Jiaxing Workshops constituted by family

members and wage earners8.5-10.3

Thread cutting Jiaxing Home worker 7Thread cutting and Nailing bead

Hangzhou Home worker 6

Thread cutting Shanghai Home worker 4.5

2 ） For the autonomy and dignity of work

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Being late or leaving early more than 5 minutes will be deducted 1 RMB for each minute.

Absenteeism for one day will be fined 100 RMB.

Using cell-phone and surfing on the internet are forbidden in working time. Listening to the MP3 and MP4 is also prohibiting. 1 RMB for the first time, 2 RMB for the second time will be fined for the violation and so on.

Eating food is not allowed in the floor, or the violator will be fined 1 RMB each time.

3 ） For taking care of household duties

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The time table of working day in garment factory of YRD

Time period The issue related to production in factory

Before 7:30 The time before go to work7:30-11:00 Working time in the morning11:00-11:30 Lunch time11:30-17:00 Working time in the afternoon

17:00-17:30 Dinner time17:30-21:30 Working time in the evening After 21:30 Off work

Much more women than men don’t work because of the burden of household

duties.

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No work reasons for both of male and female, residents of cities and rural area

Unit：%

Male Female

Total Cities and Towns

Rural area

Total Cities and Towns

Rural area

Completing household duties 2.8 2 5.5 28.9 27 35.1

Resource: Sixth China Population Census in 2010 （ Tan ， 2013 ， 73）

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Working in informal sector is a solution to deal with the work-life conflict.

The working time of a homeworker who kits woolen sweater with machine

6:30-9:00 Prepare for the breakfast, send children to school, clean the house

9:00-16:00 Work in the basement or receive the client

16:00-18:00 Prepare for the dinner, supervise children with the homework

18:00-23:00 Work in the basement or receive the client

3.3.The self-organizing of garment workers

  Contractor management system/Gang Cooperative production team

Class structure Semi-proletariat Proletariat   Social organization

The association based on the native place and kinship network. Hierarchical relationships between contractor and general workers, elders and the younger generation as well as skilled workers and beginners.

Based on the network that forms in workplace. Equal partnership between the members.

The faith in the organization

Effort makes harvest. 

There has to be a reasonable piece rate. 

The reason that initiates collective actions 

Defensive reasons like their wages are not cleared in the end of the year or the fellows are abused by the managers or workers from other provinces

Aggressive appeal such as they dissatisfy with piece rate.

4.Discussion and conclusions

4.1 The gendered structural power

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The labour shortage is considered as the female workers shortage to a large extent (Cai and Tan, 2006).

The young female workers are in the high demand of employers. 78% of the job posting of Guangdong factory mentions they hope to recruit female workers of 18 to 25 years old in 2004 (Cai and Tan, 2006).

According to the 101 cities’ situation of labor supply, the demand/supply ratio for male is 1.06 and 1.09 for female in the third quarter of 2013.

4.1.1 The boy preference at birth and the unbalanced sex ratio

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Age Population(person)

Percentage to total

population (%)

Sex RatioMale Female Male Female (Female=100)

Total 1145209 587039 558170 100.00 51.26 48.74 105.170-4 64830 35247 29583 5.66 3.08 2.58 119.155-9 61279 33242 28037 5.35 2.90 2.45 118.57

10-14 62481 33709 28772 5.46 2.94 2.51 117.1615-19 80388 42066 38322 7.02 3.67 3.35 109.7720-24 108567 55243 53323 9.48 4.82 4.66 103.6025-29 89259 44976 44282 7.79 3.93 3.87 101.5730-34 82148 41908 40240 7.17 3.66 3.51 104.1535-39 96895 49570 47325 8.46 4.33 4.13 104.7440-44 107391 54806 52585 9.38 4.79 4.59 104.2245-49 100853 51434 49419 8.81 4.49 4.32 104.08

Table: Population by age and sex (2011)

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Age Population(perso

n)

Percentage to total

population (%)

Sex RatioMale Female Male Female (Female=10

0)

Total 1145209 587039 558170 100.00 51.26 48.74 105.1750-54 62204 31821 30383 5.43 2.78 2.65 104.7355-59 71667 36213 35453 6.26 3.16 3.10 102.1460-64 52708 26688 26020 4.60 2.33 2.27 102.5765-69 36054 18064 17990 3.15 1.58 1.57 100.4170-74 28826 14394 14432 2.52 1.26 1.26 99.7475-79 21174 9959 11216 1.85 0.87 0.98 88.7980-84 11964 5324 6640 1.04 0.46 0.58 80.1785-89 4796 1855 2941 0.42 0.16 0.26 63.0790-94 1437 446 991 0.13 0.04 0.09 45.0495+ 290 73 216 0.03 0.01 0.02 33.82

4.1.2 The result of the split reproduction mode

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For the single reproduction of labor: The high-intensive work, industry injures and occupational diseases infringe women workers’ health and other right.

Lack of support for the social reproduction of labor:

No living wage, lack of social insurance and support to the special experiences of female: such as menstrual cycle, period of pregnancy and giving birth to a child.

4.2. Class, gender, localism and workers’ associational power

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Native place

Skill level Proletarianization

Organization

Gender characteristics

Internal power structure

The feature of collective action

Local residents

All round skilled worker

Complete proletarianization ， they consider themselves as industry worker

Cooperative production team

Initiated by women.

Equal, and reciprocal

Class- oriented, for the aggressive goal

Outside province residents

Skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled

Semi-proletarianization ， they view themselves as migrant rural worker

Contractor’s team/ Gang

Male play a pivotal role in the violent collective action.

Hierarchical Control by contractor or gang leader, for the defensive reason

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Thank you!