Workplace regimes in Sino-Mozambican construction projects: resentment and tension in a divided workplace

ABSTRACT

Based on a qualitative study of Chinese-led construction projects in Mozambique, this article explores how Chinese engagement in the construction sector affects workplace regimes. The study addresses the following set of questions: What characterises these workplace regimes, and why do the workplace regimes give rise to resentment and tension amongst Mozambican workers? Furthermore, how is labour agency constrained or enabled within these workplace regimes? The data reveals that Chinese companies in Mozambique are granted great freedom to develop workplace regimes as they see fit, characterised by functional flexibility, low pay and few benefits. Furthermore, the creation of a divided workplace, with separate workplace regimes for Chinese and Mozambican workers, exacerbates resentment amongst Mozambican workers. The Mozambican workers employ multiple strategies to express their discontent, but labour agency is constrained by weak national institutional support, and lack of alternative employment opportunities in the local labour market.

KEYWORDS:

• Workplace regime
• resentment
• labour agency
• Mozambique
• China

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my research assistant Sérgio António Cossa for crucial help with the data collection in Maputo. I would also like to thank Hege Merete Knutsen, Desmond McNeill, Dan Banik, Arve Hansen, SUM Research School and my anonymous reviewers for valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Ulrikke Wethal is a Research Fellow at Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo. A geographer by training, Wethal’s research has centred on industry, production and employment in low- and middle-income countries, and China’s engagement with Africa. Her latest publications include the co-edited book Emerging Economies and Challenges to Sustainability: Theories, strategies, local realities (Routledge, 2015) and the article ‘Passive hosts or demanding stakeholders? Understanding Mozambique's negotiating power in the face of China’ (Forum for Development Studies, 2017).

Notes

1 http://allafrica.com/stories/201401071365.html (accessed 8 January 2014).

2 I have translated all citations from Portuguese, except interviews with Chinese informants and relevant international organisations that were performed in English. I have had to make some grammatical changes to the citations in order to clarify the meaning, without altering the content.

3 http://www.iaffairscanada.com/2016/how-africa-will-solve-the-chinese-construction-crisis (accessed 10 December 2016).

4 From 2009 to 2011, China was one of the top five to six investors in Mozambique according to numbers from the Investment Promotion Centre (CPI) in Maputo. However, with the exploration of gas, coal and minerals in the North, large international players such as Italian Eni, American Anadarko and Brazilian Vale are dominating investments (Anderson 2012).

5 The data collected in 2013 was supplemented by interviews performed by research assistant Sérgio Cossa during 2014.

6 I was not allowed to tape the interviews with Chinese company administration.

7 The survey covered 177 companies in greater Maputo and greater Beira (the second centre for industrial and commercial activity in Mozambique).

8 http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-02/05/content_5700395.htm (accessed 17 April 2013).