Studies On Labor Policies Of The Kuomintang Government (1927-1949)

Labor was originated from the slave society; the labor in this paper refers to modern labor that is the working class in cities, mainly industrial workers and some traditional handicraft workers and laborers. It also includes some Chinese workers working in modern business and financial institutions and some middle and low compradors. The Kuomintang government drew on the experience of the Beijing government's and Guangzhou government's labor legislation and formulates many policies as policies of labor movement, labor coordination, labor welfare.The labor movement policy of the Kuomintang government includes three periods, the ten-year construction period to implement"direction and control"policy; implementation of the Anti-Japanese War was"extraordinary control"; Third Time's Civil War was"extremely repressive"policies, and its real purpose was to control labor movements, and for this purpose, the Kuomintang government set up a series of institutions in charge of labor movements.Under the policy of mandatory memberships of trade union, the number of Kuomintang controlled labor organization—trade unions and its members had been growing year by year.In order to control labor movement and appease the working class, the Kuomintang government vigorously promoted labor coordination policy. Its main contents include: advocating"class mutual aid"and"labor cooperation", obliterating class struggle and class antagonism; implementing labor coordination and arbitration to avoid labor conflict; make the contractual relationships clear to diminish labor disputes; stipulating in detail the wages of workers, working hours and other provisions to ensure the rights of rest and work; implementing minimum wage system to ensure the basic right of survival; paying attention to vulnerable groups and protecting child laborers and woman laborers. The labor coordination policy of Kuomintang government alleviated labor conflicts, stabilized social order, and received a certain degree of social results. However, in order to obtain its chairmanship of the Kuomintang regime on its capitalists, the Kuomintang government protected the interests of capitalists in some extent in terms of labor coordination.Besides labor coordination, the Kuomintang government also issued a series of labor welfare policies and regulations and provided labor welfare services. These included improving labor living conditions, strengthening health facilities construction; providing labor welfare service; establishing labor cooperative; implementing labor education and other welfare measures. These measures have achieved some results.The Kuomintang government also actively participated in the International Labor Organization (ILO) and was in close cooperation with it. The ILO formulated a series of international labor conventions and proposals from which the Kuomintang government drew on experience.The Chinese branch of ILO and Chinese government agencies in charge of labor administration, labor groups, academic groups strengthened ties to jointly discuss ways of solving labor problems, and collected materials on Chinese labors to provide reference for Kuomintang government formulation of labor policies.During the period of the Beijing government, many labors worked abroad in form of contract. In order to standardize overseas contract labors and protect the interests of native labors, the Beijing government established special OCAC agency for affairs of labors going abroad, at the same time, issued"Regulations on Overseas Labors","Regulations of Book Ban". Beijing government's management of overseas labors set an example to Nanjing government, and had great referential value for Nanjing government to manage overseas labors, establish agencies, issue overseas labor regulations. the KMT government drew on the experience of the labor management model of the Beijing government and set up organizations in charge of overseas labors and promulgated the"Regulations on Overseas Labors","Essentials of overseas labor employment","Regulations of Book Ban"KMT government's labor policies and regulations had a positive impact on the modernization of China. It promoted the development of China's modern labor legislation; partly realized the interests of the working class and to some extent eased the class contradiction. However, most of its labor policies and regulations use the experience of western countries for reference, and some are divorced from the reality of China. Besides, the purpose to formulate labor policies is to protect them as bait, in fact to control them, most of the labor regulations promulgated by the KMT government, such as"Trade Union Law", "Factory Act," the "Labor Disputes Act," "Labor Contract Law", "mandatory insurance law""Savings Interim Procedures"and other regulations include such content as controlling labor and restrictions on labor strike. Advantages and disadvantages of KMT's labor policies provide historical reference for the labor policy formulation of contemporary society.