ABSTRACT
In the cities of China's interior and north-east provinces, re-employment is not only very difficult, but also requires a large sum of cash. When the industrial reforms began, the new labor market was supposed to work on meritocratic principles. Serious violations of labor rights and incidents of corporal punishment in state enterprises are not frequently reported by the Chinese press. The Yanzhou Department Store recruited a total of 126 new employees, who then underwent job training and military training, and started work at their posts on January 28, the opening day of the Commercial Tower. The department store in this case was established by a local bureaucracy, the city's financial department. The store's trade-union chair and its committee members were carefully evaluated before being elected by the staff and workers representative committee and the trade-union committee on May 18. The problem is that very seldom do workers and trade-union representatives fight for these rights.
