Labor Dispute Resolution and Migrant Workers’ Legal Rights Protection in China

Abstract

The formal labor dispute resolution system of administrative organs, arbitration tribunal and courts which have been established to handle labor disputes remains an ineffective tool for migrant workers to resolve their disputes with their employers in China. Moreover, experience has exemplified that among the mediation style, non-official mediators have proven to be more effective in settling cases and helping migrant workers than mediators within the formal system. Taking “Little Bird,” a famous NGO for migrant workers rights protection in China, as an example, this article focuses on the problem of arrears in wages of migrant workers from a sociological-legal perspective. This article argues that the current legal system in China fails to adequately protect the legitimate rights and interests of migrant workers and that informal mediation may help resolve disputes between migrant workers and employers more efficiently. The effectiveness of NGO’s role in handling labor disputes as well as its limitations, would also be analyzed and discussed.

Institutionalizing Social Norms and Legal Culture: Social Dynamics under Legal Awareness Policy in Contemporary China

“…In China, apart from the emphasis of the official media that the Chinese society should maintain a great degree of legal awareness (Liu, 2018), some officials had commented on the lack of legal awareness of some financial practitioners in China (Xinhua, 2020). Academic works in China-including court reports (Shanxi Fenyang City People's Procuratorate, 2019)however, focus on the enhancement of legal awareness among the younger generations in China, especially University students (Ma, 2018) and college pupils (Luo, 2018) or the enhancement of legal awareness among the migrant workers in China regarding their labor protections (Chan, 2015) and dispute resolutions (Hu, 2020) (Na, 2009). The common features of the above empirical studies are their emphasis on the factors that damaged the formation of legal awareness-e.g.…”