Concerns have often been expressed about long working hours in China, but their extent and nature have not been well understood. In particular, little is known about how Chinese workers feel about their working time. At the same time, China as a transition country has been faced with a difficult task in the area of working time, namely, the dual task of standardizing and flexibilizing working time. These important issues are taken up in this report, based on a new survey which was undertaken between late 2003 and early 2004 in three major Chinese cities.

This report is part of our global research project which aims to improve our understanding of working time in developing countries. The result of this project will be published in early 2006. In addition, the ILO has collected national laws and practices on working time and made them more accessible to ILO constituents by providing a searchable database. Research work based on this database is currently under way.

It is hoped that this report will stimulate discussions and debates on working time in China, thereby contributing to improving working time policies in this country. We thank Professor Zeng of the Renmin University and his colleagues for their excellent work and Kristine Falciola for her professional editing.

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