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

• Author: Pengfei Zhang,Lijun Tang
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12252
• Date: 01 May 2019
• Published date: 01 May 2019

Global problems, local solutions: unfree

labour relations and seafarer employment

with crewing agencies in China

Lijun Tang and Pengfei Zhang

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 exam-

ines 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 inter-

national 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.

1 INTRODUCTION

Shipping is a global industry. To reduce costs, shipping companies routinely optimise

their operations by spreading their businesses across several countries. Thus, it is a

common practice that ship owners/managers from traditional maritime nations

(e.g. the UK, Germany and Norway) register ships in Flag of Convenience countries

(e.g. Panama and Liberia) and source seafarers from cheaper labour supply countries

(e.g. the Philippines, China, India and East European countries) on short-term

employment contracts through local crewing agencies. This practice gives rise to a

seafarer global labour market (International Labour Organization, 2001). On the

one hand, this labour market is characterised by flexible employment. On the other,

ship managers strive to have a stable and skilled workforce for two reasons (Drewry,

2006). First, seafarers are skilled workers and need to be well trained. Second, ship-

ping is a safety critical industry, and the seafarers already familiar with the safety

management system of the company perform better. Unsurprisingly, the Shipping

Key Performance Indicator Standard initiated and implemented in the industry in-

cludes the retention rate of seafarers as a key performance indicator.

❒Lijun Tang, School of Business, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK and Pengfei Zhang, Warsash

School of Maritime Science and Engineering, Solent University, Southampton, UK. Correspondence

should be addressed to Dr Pengfei Zhang, Warsash School of Maritime Science and Engineering, Solent

University, Southampton, UK; email: shippinglaw@163.com

Industrial Relations Journal 50:3, 277–291

ISSN 0019-8692

© 2019 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd