Understanding Global Value Chains and their Effects on Work and Employment

Content introduction：

Speaker1：Pamela Meil （Invited Guest Speaker，3:00-4:30pm）

Title：Understanding Global Value Chains and their Effects on Work and Employment

Speaker2：MD Rashed Uddin（MA Student, 4:30-5:30pm）

Title：Assessment of Implementation of Chinese Labor Contract Law 2008 in terms of Migrant Worker’s Rights in China

SSDPP COLLOQUIUM

Time: May 21, 3:00-5:30pm

Location: 2026 The North Main Building

Language: English

Speaker 1: Pamela Meil （3:00-4:30pm）

Title: Understanding Global Value Chains and their Effects on Work and Employment

About the Talk：

One aspect of globalization is the way that goods and services are restructured and produced in complex networks or chains involving a number of different actors across firm, sector and national boundaries. Global value chain analysis has contributed greatly to understanding these globalization processes by turning attention to the relationship, interaction, and governance between companies or units along the entire chain. It is also an approach that captures the dynamic nature of these relationships. Increasingly, attention is being directed to the impacts on labor at different points along the chain: For instance, effects on the organization and content of work as well as the quality of work life at different points along the chain and the changes over time.

About the Speaker：

Pamela Meil is the director of international studies and senior research fellow at the Institute of Social Science Research in Munich Germany (ISF Munich), one of the leading centers for studies on the sociology of work and employment in Germany. Her research interests include: globalization and value chain restructuring; training and competence development in new forms of geographically distributed work; the changing institutional structure and role of industrial relations in international comparison; the interaction between globalization and national adaptation processes, innovation and entrepreneurship in global technology development.

She is on the editorial board of the journal: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation, is an expert for the European Commission section on Employment and Social Affairs on restructuring in industry and services, and head of policy for the European Union Network on the dynamics of virtual work, an international and interdisciplinary research consortium with members from  29 countries.

Speaker 2: MD Rashed Uddin（4:30-5:30pm）

Title: Assessment of Implementation of Chinese Labor Contract Law 2008 in terms of Migrant Worker’s Rights in China

About the Talk：

This talk discusses how effectively the Chinese Labor Contract Law (LCL) 2008 has been implemented with respect to the rights of migrant workers. Strengthening migrant worker’s rights was one of the key motivations behind passing the LCL. The LCL appears to have resulted in at least some improvement in migrant working conditions in the five short years following its’ passage. As workers have benefited from increased job security and increased employer awareness of the law. There have been clear improvements in the compensation and severance system, reducing delayed payments and excessive work hours, as a growing proportion of workers have signed labor contracts. On the other hand, implementation has been imperfect.  Compliance with the LCL has increased costs for small size enterprises and the trade union remains weak in enforcing worker’s rights. The onerous process of dispute settlement discourages workers from pursuing legal remedies. Migrants are more likely to remain victims as they face multiple problems in the cities and do not want to seek redress if it introduces costly and time consuming hassles to their daily life. They are in need of more flexible and accessible ways to attain legal relief. An important implementation challenge is balancing the LCL and existing rules and regulations, which are extremely bureaucratic. Effective implementation of the LCL depends on a sound mechanism that can maximize the rights of workers and employers.

About the Speaker：

MD Rashed Uddin is pursuing his masters degree in Contemporary Development of China in the School of Social Development and Public Policy at Beijing Normal University. He obtained his LL.B (Honors) and LL.M (specialized on International Human Rights) from the Faculty of Law at Dhaka University, Bangladesh.