Fri, 11/27/2020 - 16:47 — lac-admin
2020-11-27
By Labour Action China
September 16, 2020
This report focuses on the work resumption situation of the jewelry industry in Guangdong province.
Previous studies mainly assume a long-term, stable and legal labour relationship. The informal labour relationship, temporary and part-time work were usually neglected. In the jewelry industry, there is a large amount of small businesses with less than 20 employees. The small businesses mostly do not sign a labour contract with or buy social insurances for their employees. Therefore, labour-related laws and regulations hardly monitor these small businesses. This study covers casual, part-time and temporary employment and analyzes the possible differences among companies at different business scales after work resumption.
In Part 4, the study, by the gender data collected, will analyze the gender bias on labour rights protection and the change in labour conditions before and after the COVID-19 Pandemic, and discuss the structural factors behind.
1. Methodology
Totally, 111 responses were collected in this study (108 valid responses). LAC’s local working partners and their volunteers assisted in survey distribution. The Guangzhou survey started on 5 May and ended on 27 August, 2020, while the Huizhou survey started in early March and ended in early May 2020.
All the survey responses were collected online from WeChat groups and personal WeChat Moments of the volunteers. The survey also involved snowball sampling: the volunteers also contacted the interviewees individually by their personal network and asked the interviewees for helping to distribute the survey. The distribution of the questionnaires mainly by personal networks results in a relative high homogeneity of the samples.
On the other hand, LAC’s working partners have solid work experience in jewelry industry. With high level of understanding in this industry and strong network with workers, the survey can provide an on-field observation of the work resumption condition in the jewelry industry. It supplements the unknown knowledge by data and reveals the real-life situations of workers.
2. Basic information of the participants
There is a large difference of gender ratio in this survey, with 64.8%, male and 35.2%, female. The large proportion of male participants is consistent with the male-intensive character in the jewelry industry. 75.9% of the participants are young to middle-aged adults aged 26 to 45 years old. There is a wide range of household registration (hukuo) of the participants, including provinces like Sichuan, Hunan, Guangdong, Guizhou and Jiangxi. Most participants work in Guangdong, with Guangzhou as the primary city (73.15%), followed by Huizhou (9.26%) and Shanwei (6.48%).
The survey mainly reflects the conditions of grassroots workers in the jewelry industry (95.41%) and covers most of the job positions in the gold and silver jewelry industry and the semi-processing industry, including punching, stone-cutting, grain-cutting, stone-setting, wax-setting, mold-making, repairing, polishing, stenciling, plate-making, stenciling room, embossing, bead-grinding, cutting, engraving, plating, die-polishing and bead-beading.
77.8% of the respondents work in small business with less than 50 employees (see Table 1).
Table 1: Basic information of participants
|
Type |
Option |
Ratio |
|
Gender |
Male |
64.81% |
|
Female |
35.19% |
|
|
Age |
16-25 years old |
7.41% |
|
26-35 years old |
50.00% |
|
|
36-45 years old |
25.93% |
|
|
46-55 years old |
15.74% |
|
|
≥56 years old |
0.93% |
|
|
Household registration location (province) |
Sichuan |
17.59% |
|
Hunan |
20.37% |
|
|
Guangdong |
23.15% |
|
|
Guizhou |
11.11% |
|
|
Hubei |
4.63% |
|
|
Jiangxi |
9.26% |
|
|
Shanxi |
0.93% |
|
|
Chongqing |
2.78% |
|
|
Guangxi |
7.41% |
|
|
Yunnan |
1.85% |
|
|
Fujian |
0.93% |
|
|
Workplace (city) |
Guangzhou |
73.15% |
|
Shenzhen |
5.56% |
|
|
Huizhou |
9.26% |
|
|
Shanwei |
6.48% |
|
|
Sihui |
2.78% |
|
|
Foshan |
1.85% |
|
|
Chengdu |
0.93% |
|
|
Work position |
Worker |
95.41% |
|
Clerk |
4.59% |
|
|
Scale |
Less than 10 employees |
29.63% |
|
10~50 |
48.15% |
|
|
50~200 |
17.59% |
|
|
200~1000 |
2.78% |
|
|
＞1000 |
1.85% |
3. Overall work resumption condition
a) Delayed work resumption
i. 92.6% of the respondents delayed in work resumption, but only 9% of them received payment normally during the delay period
92.6% of the participants said their companies delayed in work resumption and all the participants had returned to work by the time of survey. However, only 13.9% of the respondents said all staff in their companies resumed normal production (see Table 2). About work resumption time, 16.04% of the participants resumed working in February and 66.98% resumed in March (see Table 3).
In previous years, the jewelry industry usually resumed work within one week after the New Year's holiday. The typical production chain of the jewelry industry in China is from small workshops producing parts, the large domestic enterprises processing the parts to foreign markets’ purchase of the products / large foreign processing plants’ purchase of parts for re-processing.
As the local research partners share, due to the pandemic, both foreign and local large enterprises face lockdown or have no order. It indirectly affects the business of the upstream enterprises.
Also, in previous years, even no order yet been confirmed at the beginning of a year, small businesses would still produce reserved orders – the products with good sales in the past – for the market or large businesses. However, under the economic difficulties this year, companies in the jewelry industry declined to produce for reserved orders and delayed work resumption in order to minimize the financial risk.
Table 2: Work resumption condition
|
Option |
Number |
Ratio |
|
|
Not resumed |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Resumed |
Partial |
93 |
86.11% |
|
All |
15 |
13.89% |
|
Table 3: Work resumption time
|
Option |
Number |
Ratio |
|
February |
17 |
16.04% |
|
March |
71 |
66.98% |
|
April |
18 |
16.98% |
|
106 valid responses |
||
During the delayed work resumption, despite the regulations issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, only 9% of the interviewees received their payment normally, 34%, partially, and 19%, none (see Table 4).
It is noteworthy that based on this survey, small businesses were less likely to protect labour rights during the delayed work resumption period. Among the companies with less than 50 employees, 24.04% of them did not give workers payments during the delayed work resumption period and only 3.8% provided normal payment. None of the respondents from the companies with more than 50 employees involved in this survey received no payment, but only 28.57% of them received normal payment.
In the jewelry industry, businesses with less than 50 employees are usually family workshops or small workshops. Most of these workshops would not have business registration or sign legal labour contracts. Some of them only hire short-term workers. Although the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued regulations about labour relationship during the pandemic, the regulations merely focused on employees with formal employment relation and hardly protect the temporary or casual workers. Workers without labour contracts need to pay extra time and effort to prove their labour relationship through employment arbitration. It imposes the workers more costs and burdens in protecting their rights.
According to the local research partners, because of the low cost of rent, equipment and labour, small workshops suffered less pressure during the pandemic than the formal businesses did. It resulted in an unfair circumstance that companies which protected the labour rights less were easier to survive under the pandemic.
Table 4：Wage payment during the delayed work resumption
|
Option |
Number |
Ratio |
|
Normal payment |
9 |
9% |
|
Delayed payment |
34 |
34% |
|
Partial payment |
34 |
34% |
|
No payment |
19 |
19% |
|
Others |
4 |
4% |
|
100 valid responses |
||
ii. 35.2% of the respondents received quarantine but only 5.26% received normal wage payment during the quarantine period
About the labour rights during the quarantine period, 35.2% of the respondents were quarantined before work resumption. Among the respondents with quarantine, though none of them received no payment, only 5.26% received normal payment as regulated by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (see Table 5).
Table 5: Wage payment during the quarantine period
|
Option |
Number |
Ratio |
|
Normal payment |
0 |
0% |
|
Delayed payment |
34 |
89.47% |
|
Partial payment |
2 |
5.26% |
|
No payment |
2 |
5.26% |
|
38 valid responses |
||
b) Labour rights conditions
i. 34.01% of the participants’ companies did not buy social insurance for them
Only 62.96% participants received social insurance from their company as stated in the Labour Contract Law. In small businesses, participants had less protection for their labour rights. Only 42.86% of the participants working in businesses with less than 50 employees received social insurance from their employers and 25%, the participants in companies with less than 10 employees, but 83.3%, the participants in more than 50 employees.
ii. 56.48% of the participants received free protective goods
Only 56.48% of the participants received protective products like masks, sanitary liquid and gloves.
c) Pre- and post-pandemic comparison
i. Wage level: 86.11% of the participants faced wages cut and 95.7% of the participants’ wage change without prior negotiation
A significant proportion of 86.11% of the participants faced wages cut after the pandemic and 13.89% enjoyed unchanged salary. Among the participants with wages cut, 95.7% of their employers did not negotiate with them before wage change.
In the jewelry industry, wage counts usually base on piece counting and time counting. As the local partners observed, in the piece counting case, in the factories with orders, workers usually worked for 20 days per month and the wage was down to 70% to 80% of the pre-pandemic level. For those working in factories without order, they might only work less than ten days per month and wage level dropped to 20% of the normal level. In time counting case, it was also observed that the hourly income reduced after the pandemic. For example, some workers earned 300RMB per day before the pandemic but only 200RMB daily after the pandemic.
ii. Workload: 12.04% of the respondents had increased workload
87.96% of the respondents said they had not increased workload after the COVID-19 outbreak. However, given that no respondent increased in wage in this survey, 12.04% of the participants with increased workload did not earn extra income – and possibly even less. Drop of hourly pay could be one of the reasons.
iii. 88.89% of the respondents indicated changes in scale of employment in their companies. Main reasons included alternative work arrangement and partially delayed work resumption.
88.89% of the respondents said there were changes in scale of employment in their companies while the remaining kept unchanged. Alternative work (70.53%) and partially delayed work resumption (68.52%) were main reasons for the change in employment scale.
Table 6: Reasons for scale change (can select more than one)
|
Option |
Number |
Ratio |
|
Layoffs |
4 |
25.26% |
|
Alternative work |
50 |
70.53% |
|
Partially delayed work resumption |
48 |
68.42% |
|
Others |
24 |
28.42% |
|
95 valid responses |
||
iv. Labour relations: 48.15% of the participants reported layoffs in their companies, with economic layoffs as the main factor
48.15% of the respondents said their employers ceased employment relations with some workers in their workplaces and 40.38% among them indicated economic layoffs as a possible reason (see table 7).
Small businesses were more likely to cease their employment relation with some workers. For the companies with less than 10 employees, 78.13% of them had layoffs and 58.33% of the companies with less than 50 employees had layoffs. Among companies with more than 50 employees, only 12.5% of them had layoffs during the pandemic. On the one hand, small businesses were possibly having more difficulties in receiving orders and more likely to launch economic layoffs. On the other hand, it is possible that large firms have more standardized labour relations and therefore, higher legal costs to cease the employment. Small companies and workshops might have more short-term and informal labour relations, even without labour contracts. This situation could lead to more layoffs in small businesses.
Table: 7 reasons for ceasing labour relations
|
Option |
Number |
Ratio |
|
Economic layoffs |
21 |
40.38% |
|
End of contract |
7 |
13.46% |
|
Others |
24 |
46.15% |
|
52 valid responses |
||
d) Government support to enterprises and employees
Both the employers and the employees need governmental support during the pandemic. However, only 23.15% of the participants said they knew about the relevant support to their companies from the government. The main supportive schemes for companies include reduce or delay in employer-side social insurance payment. It is helpful for the employers to enjoy deduction of social insurance payment, but the employers still face unchanged level of financial pressure in paying the employee-side social insurance fee, including medical care, pensions and unemployment insurances.
e) Discussion
In the previous sections, it is noticeable that in small businesses, especially those with less than 10 employees, are less likely to buy social insurance for their workers and to protect labour right during the pandemic, and more likely to cease employment with workers. Also, the regulation issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security protects workers with legal employment relations but could not protect temporary and casual workers. Workers without labour contracts face higher costs and more hurdles in protecting their labour rights. Temporary, casual and short-term workers are also common in many industries other than jewelry, such as delivery, manufacture and service. The government should regulate the labour market to protect the basic rights of workers.
4. Gender analysis
As mentioned before, male participants take a large part of samples in this survey. It is relevant to the jewelry industry with the male-intensive character. The study also finds significant gender bias in working conditions and labour right protection.
a) Intervening variables
Firstly, this report will analyze different variables and see if each variable makes the gender bias significant.
i. Job position
Job position is one of the key variables. Job position affects salary level, competitiveness and chance of promotion. Also, the research finds a significant gender difference in job position in the jewelry industry. Table 8 shows the gender difference by job position.
Table 8: Position
|
Job position |
Female ratio |
Male ratio |
|
punching |
4.17% |
|
|
Stone-cutting |
2.78% |
|
|
Grain-cutting |
2.63% |
6.94% |
|
Stone-setting |
18.42% |
26.39% |
|
Mold-making |
13.16% |
15.28% |
|
Repairing |
4.17% |
|
|
Grinding |
15.79% |
6.94% |
|
Stenciling |
1.39% |
|
|
Stenciling room |
2.78% |
|
|
Polishing |
2.78% |
|
|
Blanking |
4.17% |
|
|
Bead-grinding |
1.39% |
|
|
Engraving |
5.26% |
2.78% |
|
Wax-setting |
23.68% |
6.94% |
|
Plating |
2.78% |
|
|
Molding |
5.56% |
|
|
Bead-beading |
7.89% |
1.39% |
|
Dispatching |
13.16% |
0.00% |
Gender difference is more obvious when dividing the positions into high-skilled, middle-skilled and low-skilled types. In Table 9, 21.05% of the female interviewees worked in low-skilled and auxiliary positions, like bead-beading and dispatching, but only 1.39% of the male interviewees did. For high-skilled positions, 56.96% of the male respondents and 36.84% of the female respondents occupied these positions, respectively. In this survey, female respondents mainly work in middle- and low- skilled positions while male are mostly in high- and middle-skilled ones.
Table 9: Positions divided by skill levels
|
Position |
Female ratio |
Male ratio |
|
High-skilled: engraving, stone-setting, mold-making, blanking, stenciling room, molding |
36.84% |
56.96% |
|
Middle-skilled: stone-cutting, grain-cutting, material-cutting, grinding, polishing, plating, bead-grinding, wat-setting, repairing, punching |
42.70% |
33.41% |
|
Low-skilled: bead-beading, dispatching |
21.05% |
1.39% |
An interviewee with several years of working experience in the jewelry semi-processing industry shares that in positions with low technical requirements, like beading and punching, female workers take a large proportion, while physically demanding positions, like grain-cutting, mainly consist of male workers. This feature is more obvious in small workshops. Also, the interviewee said that the high-skilled positions hardly hire females. Though the masters in factories teach skills to all workers, the gender bias in recruitment limits female workers in learning and promotion in the jewelry industry.
Besides salary and chance of promotion, job position also affects labour protection. As the local research partners share, small businesses usually only buy social insurances for the workers who work in higher occupationally risky positions, including the positions more exposing to dust and chemical, like grain-cutting, blanking and polishing.
ii. Company scale
The number of employees is another key variable. Most of both the male and female interviewees work for small businesses with less than 50 employees, but female workers were 6.81% more than male workers working in companies with less than 10 employees. Also, no female interviewees worked in the companies with more than 200 employees while 6.85% of the male interviewees did so.
Table 10: Company scale
|
No. of employees |
Female ratio |
Male ratio |
|
Less than 10 |
34.21% |
27.40% |
|
10~50 |
47.37% |
47.95% |
|
50~200 |
18.42% |
17.81% |
|
200~1000 |
0.00% |
4.11% |
|
More than 1000 |
0.00% |
2.74% |
b) Gender differences in labour rights protection
In this survey, social insurance protection as well as labour right and health care protection during the pandemic are the main measurements for labour rights protection. Wage payment during the delayed work resumption period and occupational health care show serious gender bias in the jewelry industry.
i. Social insurance protection
No significant gender bias was identified on social insurance protection. Female workers are 2.48% less than male workers having social insurance protection (see Table 11).
Table 11: Does the company buy social insurance for you?
|
Option |
Female ratio |
Male ratio |
|
No |
39.47% |
36.99% |
|
Yes |
60.53% |
63.01% |
ii. Labour rights protection during the pandemic period
60.52% of the female respondents reported “no payment” or “partial payment” on the questions related to wage payment during the delayed work resumption period, while 46.88% of the male respondents reported so. It reflects the situation that female workers were more likely to receive less income than those they were entitled to enjoy as stated in their labour contracts. On the other hand, 6.99% more male workers than female received delayed wage payment. It indicates that male workers were more likely to suffer delay in wage payment.
About the negotiation about wage change, 2.82% less female respondents than male negotiated with their employers about wage change. More female respondents received normal wage payment than males did, but only by 2.97%. Moreover, it was uncertain what the respondents meant exactly when they answered “others” (see Table 12).
Table 12: Labour right issues during the pandemic
|
Questions |
Options |
Female ratio |
Male ratio |
|
Wage payment during the delayed work resumption |
No payment |
21.05% |
17.19% |
|
Delayed |
28.95% |
35.94% |
|
|
Partial |
39.47% |
29.69% |
|
|
Normal |
7.89% |
10.94% |
|
|
others |
2.63% |
6.25% |
|
|
Negotiation with the employer about the wage change |
No |
97.37% |
94.55% |
|
Yes |
2.63% |
5.45% |
|
|
Wage payment during quarantine |
Partial |
92.86% |
87.50% |
|
Normal |
7.14% |
4.17% |
|
|
Others |
0.00% |
8.33% |
iii. Health care during the pandemic
Only 47.37% of the female workers received free healthcare protection products from their employers (14.06% less than male did). It indicates that female workers enjoyed less occupational health protection during the pandemic period.
Table 13: Are free protective products provided by your company?
|
Option |
Female ratio |
Male ratio |
|
No |
52.63% |
38.57% |
|
Yes |
47.37% |
61.43% |
c) Gender difference in work conditions
Table 14 shows that despite the situation that both genders mainly resumed their work in March, more male workers resumed production in February (19.12%, 8.59% more than female workers did). Males had financial income earlier and were less likely to suffer from economic difficulties.
Table 14: Work resumption time
|
Option |
Female ratio |
Male ratio |
|
February |
10.53% |
19.12% |
|
March |
71.05% |
64.71% |
|
April |
18.42% |
16.18% |
All female interviewees reported decrease in wage after the pandemic while 78.57% of males reported so.. This is a significant difference between male and female workers (see Table 15).
Table 15: Wage change
|
Option |
Female ratio |
Male ratio |
|
No change |
0.00% |
21.43% |
|
Reduced |
100.00% |
78.57% |
6.92% more female reported layoffs in their companies after work resumption (see Table 16). It is likely to mean that female workers face more unemployment risks as their companies also face more economic instability.
Table 16: Layoffs after work resumption
|
Option |
Female ratio |
Male ratio |
|
No |
47.37% |
54.29% |
|
Yes |
52.63% |
45.71% |
d) Discussion
In summary, during the delayed work resumption period, male respondents were more likely to receive delayed wage payment while female respondents were more likely to suffer from wages cut. Female workers suffered from less free occupational health products, later work resumption and higher rate of wage reduction and layoffs. Overall, under the attack of the pandemic and economic recession, female workers in the jewelry industry are more disadvantaged and more easily fall in the poverty.
Also, the study finds serious discrimination against female workers by job position and scale of employment in the jewelry industry. Female workers mainly work for auxiliary, low- and middle-skilled and low pay positions but more male workers work in middle to high-skilled positions with more income. This situation may result from gender discrimination on recruitment, job arrangement and promotion in the jewelry industry. Furthermore, female workers mainly work in small businesses. As compared with big businesses, there are more informal employment relations and less labour rights protection. This study finds that the economic disadvantage of female workers under the pandemic is closely related to the said structural factors.
Does the discrimination against women workers happen to other industries? It is highly likely to do so if there are gender bias as well as inequality of power and opportunities in various industries. The improvement of economic conditions of female workers needs to change the gender inequality at work.
This research only covers the female workers with payments, but not touch the unpaid female caretakers when analyzing the female economic condition. In the survey on grassroots women under the COVID-19 Pandemic by Wang Zi-yan and Luo Hong-mei (2020), 40% of the interviewees were main care-takers in family and 12.7% of the interviewees said other female family members served as the main care-takers in family, but only 6% of the male spouses did so in family. 57% of the respondents said their care-taking work increased during the pandemic period and 87% indicated more time in cleaning. Strong gender bias in caretaking in family limits women’s participation in the labour market. Under the pandemic, double difficulties in family and in job of grassroots women are more intensified.
Reference
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