Introduction

China’s rapid economic and social changes over the last few decades have fundamentally changed labor relations, including the legal problems faced by workers. Overdue wages, discrimination, industrial injuries, and unpaid social insurance premiums are all too common. This talk will discuss these problems and then evaluate the evolving landscape of legal and other services available for addressing them—such as private lawyers, legal aid, barefoot lawyers, pro bono lawyers, and NGOs—in Beijing, Shenzhen, and the Yangtze River Delta. The presentation will conclude by examining some new proposed strategies for combatting these legal issues.

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About the Speaker

Aaron Halegua is a lawyer, consultant, and Research Fellow at both NYU Law School’s Center for Labor and Employment Law and U.S.-Asia Law Institute. In his over 10 years working on Chinese labor issues, Aaron has consulted for Apple, the Ford Foundation, Asia Foundation, PILNet, SEIU, the International Labor Rights Forum, and the American Bar Association. His writings on Chinese legal issues have appeared in the South China Morning Post, Berkeley Journal of International Law, Hong Kong Law Journal, and Harvard Law & Policy Review (Online), and he has been quoted in The New York Times and Economist. Aaron was the legal expert hired by the International Labor Organization to help the Government of Myanmar draft a labor law reform plan in 2015. In the United States, Aaron has successfully represented Chinese immigrants working in nail salons, restaurants, homecare, and construction. He authored a book chapter based on these experiences that will be published by Cambridge University Press. He has an A.B. from Brown University and J.D. from Harvard Law School.