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IWS Documented News Service
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Institute for Workplace Studies                   Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations           Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor                    Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016                        Director, IWS News Bureau
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INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE ­ GENEVA
Conditions of Work and Employment Programme
Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 11

Working time in transition: The dual task of standardization and flexibilization in China
Xiangquan Zeng, Liang Lu, Sa’ad Umar Idris
School of Labor and Human Resources
Renmin University of China
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/condtrav/pdf/11cws.pdf
[full-text, 41 pages]

[excerpt]
This report is part of our global research project which aims to improve our understanding of working time in developing countries. The result of this project will be published in early 2006. In addition, the ILO has collected national laws and practices on working time and made them more accessible to ILO constituents by providing a searchable database ( http://www.ilo.org/travail/database/index.htm). Research work based on this database is currently under way. It is hoped that this report will stimulate discussions and debates on working time in China, thereby contributing to improving working time policies in this country. We thank Professor Zeng of the Renmin University and his colleagues for their excellent work and Kristine Falciola for her professional editing.


Contents
Page

Preface.................................................................................................................................... v
Section 1. Introduction..................................................................................................................... 1
Socio-economic context.......................................................................................................... 2
Social discussions and debates................................................................................................ 3
Section 2. Working hours: Towards a 40-hour workweek?.............................................................. 7
Laws and regulations.............................................................................................................. 7
Regulations on daily and weekly hours........................................................................ 7
Overtime work.............................................................................................................. 8
Rest breaks, rest days and paid holidays....................................................................... 9
Working hours in practice....................................................................................................... 10
Weekly working hours.................................................................................................. 10
Overtime hours............................................................................................................. 15
Annual paid leave ......................................................................................................... 17
Section 3. Working time arrangements: Farewell to standard working time?.................................. 19
Legal and policy framework concerning working time arrangements: Standardization versus flexibilization................ 19
Working time arrangements in practice: Challenges for standard working time.................... 20
Unsocial working hours................................................................................................ 20
Flexible working time arrangements............................................................................ 22
Part-time work.............................................................................................................. 23
Workers’ evaluations.................................................................................................... 25
Section 4. Conclusions and prospects............................................................................................... 27
References........................................................................................................................................ 29
Annex............................................................................................................................................... 31
Descriptive statistics: The employee survey (2003-2004)...................................................... 31
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This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.

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Stuart Basefsky                   *
Director, IWS News Bureau                *
Institute for Workplace Studies *
Cornell/ILR School                        *
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor             *
New York, NY 10016                        *
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Telephone: (607) 255-2703                *
Fax: (607) 255-9641                       *
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu                  *
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