Abstracts
Abstract
Employee voice in China remains an under-researched topic from an industrial relations perspective. We investigated the relationship between family dependents (children and elderly) and migrant worker silence, with town-fellow organizations as a moderator, based on the data of the 2014 Guangdong Migrant Workers Survey. The findings reveal that migrant workers with dependent children are more likely to keep silent when their labour rights and interests are violated at the workplace, while family responsibilities for dependent elderly family members do not have significant impacts on migrant workers’ silence. In addition, town-fellow organizations weaken the association between family responsibilities for elderly dependents and silence. Our study contributes to the existing literature on employee voice and provides evidence on the role of town-fellow organizations in China as an informal, emerging institutional actor that regulates labour relations through their involvement in dispute resolution.
Keywords:
- employee silence,
- family dependents,
- informal institutional actor,
- migrant workers,
- town-fellow organization
Résumé
Objectif de recherche et questions – La voix de l’employé en Chine demeure un thème peu étudié du point de vue des relations industrielles, surtout à l’égard des travailleurs venus de la campagne. Ces derniers, qui constituent le segment le plus important de la population active, ont peu de moyens efficaces pour faire entendre leur voix. À ce jour, pour expliquer le silence de l’employé dont les droits du travail ont été violés, on a accordé trop peu d’attention au rôle des responsabilités familiales. On a également trop peu examiné le rôle modérateur des acteurs institutionnels informels, comme les organisations de migrants venus de la même ville, qui permettent au travailleur migrant lésé d’exprimer ses revendications.
La présente étude a pour but de combler ces lacunes en répondant à deux questions: (1) Le travailleur migrant sera-t-il plus enclin à garder le silence s’il a des enfants ou des aînés à sa charge? (2) De quelle manière l’organisation de migrants venus de la même ville influence-t-elle le lien entre le fait d’avoir des personnes à charge et le choix de se taire?
Méthodologie – Il s’agit d’une étude empirique de la relation entre les personnes à charge (enfants et aînés) et le silence du travailleur migrant, ainsi que le rôle modérateur de l’organisation de migrants venus de la même ville. Les données proviennent d’une enquête sur des travailleurs migrants (n = 776) vivant dans la province de Guangdong, dans le sud de la Chine.
Résultats – 1) Si un travailleur migrant a des membres de famille à sa charge, ce fait influencera sa voix lorsque ses droits auront été violés. 2) Dans cette éventualité, il est plus enclin à se taire pour le bien de ses enfants que pour celui de ses aînés. 3) Quant à l’organisation de migrants venus de la même ville, elle affaiblit la relation entre le fait d’avoir des aînés à charge et le choix de garder le silence.
Contributions – 1) Ces résultats enrichissent les connaissances actuelles sur la voix du travailleur migrant en Chine, surtout celui ayant des responsabilités familiales. 2) Nous avons démontré que l’organisation de migrants venus de la même ville joue un rôle institutionnel qui est informel mais néanmoins important, soit celui de représenter les travailleurs migrants dont les droits du travail ont été violés.
Mots clés:
- silence de l’employé,
- membres de famille à charge,
- acteur institutionnel informel,
- travailleurs migrants,
- organisation de migrants venus de la même ville
Appendices
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