State,capital And Workers: A Study On The Identity Production Of Labor Dispatch Workers

With the transformation of labor law and the demand for flexible employment in China,the new legal category of “labor dispatch” was created in the Labor Contract Law of the People's Republic of China(implemented in 2008).At the legal level,labor dispatch workers have the protection of labor contracts and employment registration in the formal sector.It seems that these workers have obtained “official” and “legal” status.However,at the practical level,the phenomenon of inequality between dispatch workers and formal workers,such as different pays and different welfares,still exists in many enterprises.The dispatch workers are often treated as “temporary workers” and “informal workers”.So,we can see that the status of labor dispatch workers is contradictory.Under the theoretical framework of state-capital-workers,through the analysis of relevant legal texts and in-depth interviews with labor dispatchers and formal workers,the research explores how the state designs the labor dispatch workers under the logic of labor law,and how the capital uses the labor dispatch workers under the logic of the market economy.Finally,the research discusses the identity production path behind the contradictory identity of dispatch workers.The main conclusions of the research are as follows: Firstly,the contradictory of national legislation results in the difference between the market practice and the original purpose.In the process of labor contract legalization,the labor contract does not end the difference of labor identity.On the contrary,it promotes the creation of new identities.According to the length and form of the contract,the labor identities have a grade difference,which has caused “from contract to identity”.Secondly,the further commodification of labor force is the basis for the deviation of labor dispatcher's identity practice and identity design.The accepting units of the labor dispatchers,the service providers of labor dispatchers,and the other employees gradually lead to the informality of dispatch workers.Thirdly,the identity production of dispatch workers is based on the macro-foundation of the state and capital alliance,and the meso-channel of the labor market segmentation,forming the final micro-image,that is,fragmented unstable workers.Finally,the research attempts to respond to the concept of “precariat”(Guy Standing)and attempts to refine the state-capital-worker analysis framework by adding the concept of “labor market segmentation”,as an intermediate channel between the state,the capital and the workers.