INVESTIGATIVE ESSAY by Erin Cretney

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CHINA WORKER

China’s manufacturing capability has been massive for decades. Increased demand from international clothing companies on Chinese production factories means that there is now more pressure than ever for quick turn-around and high productivity.

The Chinese Labour Law was brought into legislation in 1995 in order to enforce better working standards. As these laws are still relatively new, it is found that their implementation has not taken effect in many factories. Workers are still being exploited through long standard hours, perpetual overtime, low wages, poor working conditions and stressful environments.

The Chinese Labour Law stipulates that normal working hours consist of 40 regular hours and a maximum of 9 hours of overtime per week. And yet an investigation report published by China Labour Watch (an organization that that investigates into the industry) found that this is almost never followed. It is well known that manufacturers within the textile industry are under constant pressure from buyers and consumers to reduce costs and meet production deadlines.

LENGTH OF WORK HOURS

Working hours of textile factory employees far exceed those stated in Chinese Labour Law and this excessive overtime threatens workers’ health and wellbeing.

It is not uncommon for labourers to fall asleep whilst on duty. Rice bowls are dropped during meal breaks and workers faint on the shopfloor – the likeliness of workplace accidents is thus greatly increased. These long hours bring on such ailments as gastric diseases and back and muscular strain.

Managers of the textile factories feel they have no choice but to implement overtime work, and so demanding the excess hours is acceptable according to Pun Ngai, author of the book Made in China. When production orders are under time pressure from international clients the managers have no choice but to break laws and force their workers into excessive overtime in order to meet deadlines.

A production manager for the clothing factory China Miracle said, “The foreigners put us in a trap. On the one hand, they talk about human rights. But, on the other hand, they also want good products cheaply. For that, they have to trade off human rights. It’s quite obvious.”

The competition between Chinese garment factories to provide customers with an attractive production line forces down prices and increases the necessary speed of production. If factories do not provide this, they stand to lose job orders and potentially to go out of business.

Some employees have refused to participate in overtime work, and later discover that they are booked for being absent without leave.  Subsequently, they lose an entire day’s wages, and receive threats that their monthly and yearly bonuses may be seriously affected.

PAY RATE

Workers’ wages are unlawfully low and are often not paid on time. Workers are paid either by hourly rate or by piece rate.

Hourly rate workers earn an average of 48 cents per hour. Piece rate workers’ wages vary between each discipline, but their monthly pay, on average, is $135.00, according to chinalaborwatch.org. When working within standard hours, this wage simply isn’t enough to subsidise regular living expenses, such as rent and food. As a result, workers are forced to work overtime.

WORKING OVERTIME

According to Article 44 of Chinese Labour Law, workers should receive 150 percent of the normal pay rate when working overtime and 200 percent when working on their day off. Despite this, several studies have shown that nearly all workers claim they have never been granted this higher pay rate when working the extra hours and express that this is unacceptable. It is due to their low wages that workers themselves choose to do overtime in order to earn more money, despite the absence of bonus payment.

Workers also choose to work overtime for fear of losing their job. They are aware of the consequences of not meeting deadlines for  production orders and would rather work overtime to ensure that they still have a job. Without these extra hours, it is impossible for workers to afford their living costs. They believe that there is not point in having time off when they have no money to live – let alone fund outings or luxuries. One worker stated, “Yes, you may say we prefer long working hours. If we can’t feed ourselves, what’s the use of having a holiday on Sunday?”

‘FLEXIBLE’ WAGE SYSTEM

Each factory has a different payment system. One factory, Metro Cotton Mill, has a payment system where the workers’ wages are calculated daily according specific tasks conducted during each day. As the tasks change constantly (due to varying product specifications) it is unclear to the workers how each task is monitored and how their daily performance is graded.

A woman in the weaving department of Metro Cotton states,  “You never know how much money you will be given for the month. We don’t know how the fairness is worked out. It’s really confusing. We don’t know how much money we get at the end of each month.”

Factory directors believe this ‘flexibility’ is the key to a successful wage system. For the managers of Metro Cotton, having control of workers’ payments by observing their daily tasks and effort means they are able to use the wage system as a tool for encouragement – as a reward system. Members of the production management office at Metro Cotton seek to put their workers under pressure in order to increase their efficiency. They believe that only through applying this pressure can they develop good work ethics among their employees.

‘BONUS’ REWARDS SCHEME

Production Managers at the Metro Cotton Mill have also introduced a ‘bonus rewards’ system to encourage better working practise. This ‘bonus’ value is measured by workers’ performance in areas such as technical skills and attendance. But it is impossible for the workers to actually gain from this system. Instead, they merely stand to reduce penalty. The bonus points are linked to their wages. Workers are monitored closely by supervisors who note the mistakes workers make and deduct bonus points for each – meaning they forfeit some of their standard wage. Therefore this ‘bonus’ system is completely ‘bogus’. It is in fact a powerful punishment system.

Managers believe this bonus system is an effective way to encourage the workers participation in production, and so strongly believe the system should be kept. Despite the questionable fairness of the bonus system -  it is effective. The workers’ performance is always improving and the speed and accuracy of production is always of a high standard.

LATE PAYMENTS

Factory workers are supposed to receive wages once per month, yet several studies have found that it is common for these payments to be late. In a documentary about Chinese textile workers, entitled China Blue, late payments are seen to be common practice and result in much stress and financial strain on the workers. The workers react to this by striking. However, management threatens to dismiss the strikers who so return to work. The leader of the strike is then sacked.

Factory managers claim that it is not realistic to expect standards on working contracts (concerning wage) to be adequately implemented. Managers claim that delayed wage payments are inevitable when dealing with overseas customers and large orders. This suggests that managers believe this to be perfectly acceptable practice.

WORKING CONDITIONS

The conditions within many factories are poor and the working environment is intense and stressful.

There are many different processes undertaken during the production of any given garment. The production of jeans is one of the more labour-intensive. Jeans factory workers in the Chinese town of Zhongshan scrub thousands of jeans daily, to create the now fashionable ‘vintage’ look. The loud, ungainly machines of motorised grinders are used to shear layers of the denim. The process releases sticky, blue dust  that covers the workers’ skin and clogs their lungs.

Environments inside factories are unpleasant and have been described as “a sensory assault”. Rivioli states that working within this environment is not beneficial for the workers, physically or emotionally.

“You do this for three or five years and you leave the factory a wreck,” 40-year-old Li Hui said.

Hui is a laundry worker. Her job is to haul jeans into giant washing machines, then throw in bleach, enzymes and pumice stone to break down the indigo.

Several studies from foreign authors express that it’s unacceptable for employees to be working in these poor conditions, where they are exposed to harmful chemicals, potentially dangerous equipment and constant loud noise.

MENTAL ILLNESS

Further heightening the intensity and pressure upon the workers are ‘encouragement’ posters placed around the factories. Also in China Blue, there is a shot of one of these posters hanging above the canteen that reads “If today you don’t work hard at your job, tomorrow you will work hard on finding a job.”

No one within the companies seems interested in how the workers are affected or their mental well-being, the managers are only concerned about increasing the worker productivity and profit margins.

Doctors are concerned with the growing amount of mental illness cases emerging from front-line workers. They have observed that there are two main causes for such an outbreak of mental illness in the industry: labour intensification and the tightening of managerial control, particularly in terms of discipline.

FROM THE FARM TO THE FACTORY

On the other hand, many factory workers have relocated from rural areas where they had been helping out on their family farm, which is reportedly a more labour-intensive lifestyle than that of a factory worker. Farm workers have moved to the city in search of a better life and truly believe they’ve found it working on the factory floor.

A worker, Li Luyuan, who chose to move from a farm to the city and found work in the Amazon Cotton Mill expressed that she didn’t like the farming, as it was so hot from sunup to sundown.

The young worker said “My life is better now.” Moving to the city meant that she could afford more clothes, more kinds of food and a better house “So yes, when we came to the mill life was easier.”

IN CONCLUSION

The exploitation of factory workers and violation of the Chinese Labour Law is simply unacceptable.

Perhaps the West needs to reconsider its policies in regards to how much work we give the Chinese?

If you are in the field of fashion or manufacturing, you might consider conducting your work with these things in mind. It is important to have an understanding from the perspectives of both the workers and managers. A lot of these hidden problems can occur when middlemen are involved. Awareness is key.