China at work: a labour process perspective on the transformation of work and employment in China Mingwei Liu and Chris Smith (eds) Palgrave, 2016, 424 pp., £48.99

• Date: 01 July 2016
• Author: Xuebing Cao
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12144
• Published date: 01 July 2016

Chapter five relates the union behaviour in using the statutory procedures strategi-

cally to build a case for recognition in some hostile employer environments. The seven

case studies within the chapter reveal a determination to utilise the recognition pro-

cess as a means of reversing declines in memberships and mobilising them in everyday

campaigns and disputes. The importance of active and resilient memberships, often

motivated through their own grievance/s with management, is clearly displayed in

the case studies within the chapter. The key role of activists in either resisting or ac-

commodating managerial prerogative, whilst also maintaining trusting relationships

with those same manager’s at appropriate junctures, are themes that echo throughout

these case studies—ones that reader’s can surely relate to, empathise with and

understand.

Chapter 6 focuses upon the later ERA 2004 with suggestions that it encouraged

some unfair practices and also increased the fragmentation of workplace representa-

tion. The difficulties for unions in operating national bargaining groups as opposed to

single site applications are highlighted in key examples early within the chapter (i.e.

GMB campaign at John Nixon: TUR1/406/2004). The chapter includes a wide di-

versity of both service sector (i.e. social care) and privatised and now private sector

businesses (i.e. utilities: GMB and Severn Trent Retail Utility Services (STRUS)

TUR1/713/2010). The complexities of the outsourcing and privatisation agendas

are explored through the Transfer of Undertakings and Protection of Employees Reg-

ulations (TUPE) and related recognition applications. The plight of temporary and

agency workers’, who can be marginalised when excluded from some bargaining

units, is seen as fragmenting the workforce and providing real challenges to unions

and affected workers alike. The insecurity of working practices for some workers, par-

ticularly the contracted worker, the agency and temporary worker remains largely un-

seen by the legislation often allowing employers to undermine collective workplace

representation. Chapter eight concludes the text by assessing the success or otherwise

of the recognition process, speculating that because of increased fragmentation of

working practices, future applications might focus upon smaller bargaining units,

but against a background of decreases in applications.

In summary, this is an invaluable asset in charting the changing trends in the recog-

nition process. It makes a clear and thoughtful assessment of recognition processes,

the legislation, practical application and effectiveness for its users.

Jeremé Snook

Sheffield Hallam University Collegiate Crescent, Sheffield, UK

China at work: a labour process perspective on the transformation of work and

employment in China

Mingwei Liu and Chris Smith (eds)

Palgrave, 2016, 424 pp., £48.99

China at Work contributes to a continuing exploration of the changing state of

Chinese labour with an overall emphasis of labour process perspectives. It includes

case studies and theorisations of work and employment in China and attempts to

grasp the causations, processes and implications of the recent events in the country

397Book reviews

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd