Reflections and Amendments on Labor Dispatch Legislation under the Chinese Discourse System
The debate over labor dispatch in China has stopped after intense legislative and amendment disputes.However,the hasty amendments not only failed to achieve the goal of returning workers to standard labor relations but also created new domestic and international issues.Firstly,over 20 million labor dispatch workers did not return to formal employment as scholars had anticipated.Instead,most shifted to labor outsourcing.Secondly,while some workers transitioned from labor dispatch to standard labor relations,the market developed a solution to address social insurance payment issues in cases where the registered address and work location differ.This involved creating fictitious labor relationships,due to the high degree of bundling of social insurance with the labor relationship,to the need for criminal law interventions to regulate social security agency fraud.Continental European countries often restrict labor dispatch to"temporary and substitute"roles.China's Labor Contract Law incorporated these"two standards"and added a"supplementary"criterion.Subsequent amendments further reinforced the application of these"three standards."While China also requires the"temporary and alternative"functions of labor dispatch to meet flexible employment needs,it has primarily based labor dispatch on"protective and anti-rigidity"criteria.The"three parties,two locations,three parties"characteristic of labor dispatch provides unique functions of temporal separation and spatial bridging.China has innovatively utilized the protective and anti-rigidity aspects of labor dispatch to compensate for the deficiencies of representative offices of foreign enterprises,promote orderly labor transfer,facilitate the smooth completion of state-owned enterprise reforms,and soften overly rigid labor relations in monopolistic enterprises and institutions.China's use of labor dispatch has significantly alleviated various social conflicts caused by institutional frictions during the system transition.However,China adopted Western labor dispatch standards without thorough consideration.As a result,Western norms of temporary and substitute labor dispatch replaced China's original protective and anti-rigidity standards.This led to the abandonment of the successful experiences China had created through its unique use of labor dispatch since 1978.Labor dispatch is a transformation of standard labor relations under the motivation from actual demands of civil employment.Behind the differences in the labor laws are the conflict between Chinese and Western values,including collectivism versus individualism,welfare mechanisms versus market mechanisms,and export-oriented versus import-oriented labor policies.China's labor legislation should cultivate cultural self-awareness and self-confidence,clarify the erosion caused by Western discourse,and reconstruct a labor dispatch system that aligns with its national conditions.
Labor DispatchSpace-Time FunctionLawValueDiscourse System
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