Global problems, local solutions: unfree labour relations and seafarer employment with crewing agencies in China

Lijun Tang and Pengfei Zhang

Industrial Relations Journal, 2019, vol. 50, issue 3, 277-291

Abstract: This article documents and discusses a local labour control regime employed by Chinese crewing agencies to restrict the mobility of newly graduated officer seafarers. The shipping industry relies on a stable and skilled seafarer workforce on flexible employment, assembled globally with the help of local crewing agencies. A stable workforce and flexible employment do not seem easily compatible. This article examines how Chinese crewing agencies help manage this tension in China through analysing the experience of seafarers. It argues that to cater for the demand of international shipping companies, Chinese crewing agencies adopt a particular local labour control regime that re/produces unfree labour relations. The local control regime is built on existing institutional practices in China, structural weaknesses of seafarers and the disjunctions between the local institutional set‐ups and the global chains of labour supply.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12252

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:indrel:v:50:y:2019:i:3:p:277-291

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0019-8692

Access Statistics for this article

Industrial Relations Journal is currently edited by Peter Nolan

More articles in Industrial Relations Journal from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().