A test of union power in the construction industry

Conclusions The tentative answers reached to the questions posed in the introduction to this paper are as follows: The relative level of union wage scales in a particular city are related to the degree of unionization of the state in which the city is located, the level of wages in manufacturing in the particular city, city size, and whether located in the South. The percentage change in journeymen's wages between 1965 and 1968 was related to the degree of unionization, to location in the highly industrialized Northcentral region, and to the percentage change in contract construction employment. The unemployment rate in the area and changes in the areas' unemployment rate were not statistically related to construction wage changes.The latter finding can be interpreted in two ways: The unemployment variable pertained to all unemployed workers in the area, rather than to unemployed construction workers, and it may be that a more refined measure of unemployment would show the expected relationship. This seems most plausible as an explanation for the lack of association with changes in journeymen's wages, but less plsusible in the case of helpers and laborers' wages. An alternative interpretation is that among the more important factors influencing construction wages in the recent past have been demand factors and factors associated with the strength of trade unions in collective bargaining, rather than pronounced shortages of labor. The latter interpretation seems to be consistent with casual empiricism and with the commonly held view that the trade unions are indeed very powerful and that, within limits, they are able to gain large settlements even when there are substantial unemployed resources.The author is indebted to Lawrence V. Asch for assisting in data collection and tabulation.     

Institutional arrangements and construction safety in China: an empirical examination

Previous studies merely attempted to identify factors affecting safety performance from the micro perspective of project management, while they never questioned why those factors, such as lack of the top‐management support and training, existed. A macro perspective, informed by the corollary of the Coase Theorem, was adopted here to show that suitable institutional arrangements are essential for better safety performance in a construction industry. Province‐level construction safety records in China from 1994 to 2000 were used to test the effects of institutional arrangements on construction safety in China. Major factors affecting construction safety were found to be the implementation of construction safety laws, the rate of subcontracting, while neither the extent of using temporary workers, nor the availability of resources, nor the level of per capita GDP have any effects.     

Production arrangements by US building and non‐building contractors: an update

The paper presents the results of the first phase of a long‐term study that addresses the determinants of the production arrangements by US building (commercial and residential construction) and non‐building contractors (transportation, environmental and industrial construction). Empirical and census data are used to understand the subcontracting and self‐performance practice of the considered contractors. The significant differences in their production arrangements are explained in terms of range of technological requirements and their relative importance within undertaken projects. Building contractors tend to subcontract much of their production, because of the relatively wider range of technological inputs of building projects and liability concerns. On the contrary, non‐building contractors self‐perform much of their production, because of the relatively narrower range of technological inputs of their projects and higher fixed investments in dedicated assets.     

Making sense of supply chain management: a comparative study of aerospace and construction

Current recipes for learning across business sectors too often fail to recognize the embedded and contextual nature of management practice. The existing literature gives little emphasis to the symbiotic relationship between supply chain management and the broader dynamics of context. The aerospace and construction sectors are selected for comparison on the basis that they are so different. The UK aerospace sector has undergone extensive consolidation as a result of the imperatives of global competitive pressures. In contrast, the construction industry has experienced decades of fragmentation and remains highly localized. An increasing proportion of output in the aerospace sector occurs within a small number of large, globally orientated firms. In contrast, construction output is dominated by a plethora of small firms with high levels of subcontracting and a widespread reliance on self‐employment. These differences have fundamental implications for the way that supply chain management is understood and implemented in the two sectors. Semi‐structured interviews with practitioners from both sectors support the contention that supply chain management is more established in aerospace than construction. The introduction of prime contracting and the increasing use of framework agreements within the construction sector potentially provide a much more supportive climate for supply chain management than has traditionally prevailed. However, progress depends upon an improved continuity of workload under such arrangements.     

“营改增”后大型施工单位成立建筑劳务分包企业的损益分析与评价

自2016年5月1日起,建筑业纳入"营改增"试点范围,由缴纳营业税改为增值税。增值税实行严格的以票管税,取得可抵扣进项税额的多少直接影响着企业的增值税税负。人工费用作为施工成本的重要组成部分,约占15%~25%,能否取得增值税专用发票引起大型施工单位的关注。随着建筑企业管理层与作业层的两层分立,劳务分包已然成为我国建筑施工的主要形式。笔者所在单位近期给几家大型施工单位作"营改增"财税咨询,调研了交通建设项目的劳务分包情况,对大型施工企业内部成立劳务分包企业、外部选择劳务分包企业以及劳务派遣等几种劳务用工方式进行了对比分析。     

Fixed term contracts and employers' human capital: The role of educational spillovers

This paper analyses the role of the employers' education on the spread of temporary contracts. Taking advantage of a unique firm‐level dataset, we test whether the share of fixed term workforce in a firm is affected by the employer's level of education. Furthermore, we test whether knowledge spillovers arising from the agglomeration of university graduate employers affect the incidence of temporary employment in the firms located in the area. In both cases we find a negative effect. Interestingly, only small firms are influenced by the spillovers. The possible problems of endogeneity of the agglomeration variable are coped with an IV approach.     

试论建筑工程分包在中国的运用

先阐明了我国实行建筑工程分包的现实意义,然后从我国建筑市场的实际出发,指出了我国建筑工程分包市场所面临的问题,最后对发展我国的建筑工程分包市场所应采取各种措施进行了讨论,以提高建筑市场效率.     

Sex segregation in construction organizations in Bangladesh and Thailand

Why do more women in Bangladesh study civil engineering than in Thailand, but fewer Bangladeshi women take employment in construction companies? The primary data for answering this question were drawn from questionnaire surveys with 204 professional engineers, in‐depth interviews with 80 professional women engineers, and informal discussions with employers/representatives in construction organizations in Bangladesh and Thailand. The findings underline the importance of organizational policy, practices and culture in creating a women‐friendly workplace in both countries. The findings suggest that despite the reinforcement of societal gender expectations, organizations are able to create their own organizational culture and practices, which could help to utilize women's talent and improve their professional careers.     

Impacts of multi-layer chain subcontracting on project management performance

This paper investigates the impacts of applying the multi-layer chain subcontracting system on project management performance with reference to Hong Kong construction industry. Multi-layer chain subcontracting system is widely used within construction industry as it is considered advantageous in many aspects such as better efficiency of subcontractors’ operation due to their unique skills. However, the fact of poor quality products in construction practice raises the doubt about the effectiveness of the chain system. Accordingly, the reasons why the applications of the system contribute to poor project performance are examined. A survey conducted in the Hong Kong construction industry demonstrates that the multi-layer chain subcontracting system, while widely adopted, is largely flawed. Based on the survey results, application of multi-layer chain subcontracting system contributes largely to the poor performance across the all major aspects including quality and time management, cost control, and communication and coordination performance. The association exists between poor project management performance and the increase of the number of layers in the chain of the subcontracting arrangement. The long communication chain because of the increasing layers of subcontractors results in various problems such as communication errors, poor supervision on the bottom-layer contractors. Consequently overruns in cost and time, and abortive and remedial works are common. Recommendations for improving the practice are suggested and explored, including change the practice of the “lowest bid” to an approach which incorporate both price and technical performance, limit the number of subcontracting layers, restrain the use of “supply-and-fix” subcontracting arrangement, and enforce the implementation of government regulations. The findings of this study provide useful references in examining the practice of subcontracting system in other construction industries and identifying the areas where the improvements can be made for gaining the benefits of using the system.     

施工企业劳务分包管理中存在的问题及对策研究

目前施工企业在劳务分包队伍选择、施工组织与管理、劳务工资支付等过程环节存在着诸多问题,形成管理风险。文章试图结合施工企业劳务分包管理的实际过程,从劳务分包企业管理的内外部因素对问题形成的原因进行探讨,提出健全企业劳务分包风险防范机制、加强施工过程监督、强化劳务分包队伍建设等针对性措施。     

Opening up international trade in Eastern European countries

This paper addresses the effect of liberalisation and transformation in Eastern Europe on international trade flows between specific West and East European countries belonging to the Rhine-Main-Danube area. The discussion is focused on volume and direction of trade effects using a simple, but evidently robust model of bilateral trade flows. The estimates are naturally subject to a great range of uncertainty with respect to the likely developments in each of the countries concerned. The numbers might end up wide of the mark in the long term, but we think they are useful nonetheless in helping to frame the issues and focus thinking on the potential impact. The overall trade volumes tend to expand primarily as a result of a rise in living standards and output levels, and increase the openess of the Eastern European countries. Because any increase in income will take time, the global trade import will be spread over a number of years. The collapse of COMECON trading arrangements and the increasing influence of market forces in the Eastern European countries is likely to lead to a reorientation of these countries trade away from each other and towards Western European markets.     

Employment and winter construction: a comparative analysis of Denmark and western European countries with a similar climate

Reduced seasonal building activity in the construction sector is often assumed to be related to hard winter conditions for building activities and poor working conditions for construction workers, resulting in higher costs and poor quality of building products, particularly in the northern hemisphere. Can climatic conditions alone explain the sizeable difference in reduction in building activity in the construction sector in European countries in the winter months, or are other factors such as technology, economic cycles and schemes for financial compensation influential as well? What possibilities exist for reducing seasonal variation in employment? In addition to a literature review related to winter construction, European and national employment and meteorological data were studied. Finally, ministerial acts, ministerial orders or other public policy documents related to winter construction were scrutinized in order to identify and compare economic incentives and compensation schemes intended to increase winter working in construction in Denmark and other western European countries. Overall, economic development in the construction sector and the level of compensation or the duration of contracts for workers is more likely to explain differences in seasonal activity than climatic or technological factors.     

Mitigating the health and safety influence of subcontracting in construction: The approach of main contractors

Subcontracting is noted for its adverse health and safety (H&S) influence in construction. Using interviews with five of the top 20 UK contractors and one medium-sized contractor, this study explored how main contractors manage the H&S influence of subcontracting with a focus on their in-house measures. Some in-house measures found are: restricting the layers of subcontractors on projects; working with a regular chain of subcontractors; implementing a H&S reward scheme for subcontractors; and insisting on non-working subcontractor foremen who have direct responsibility for the safety of workers in their trade. These measures appear to be influenced by clients, industry peer groups, and the moral justification for occupational H&S, and they offer inter-organisational learning opportunities for contractors in devising measures to mitigate the H&S influence of subcontracting. These findings should also allay concerns that removing some of the legislative hurdles in connection with on-going red tape debate will result in poorer H&S.     

论工程项目的分承包管理

阐述了建筑工程项目加强分承包管理的必要性,分析了实践中分包管理常见的问题及其应对措施,并对未来的建筑工程项目分包管理进行了探讨,以做好项目管理分包形式的管理工作。     

UK construction skills shortage response strategies and an analysis of industry perceptions

The construction industry is heavily dependent on the adequate supply of a skilled labour force, and as a result the skilled labour shortage in the UK has received considerable attention in recent years. With the current economic recovery the industry is expected to experience considerable skills shortages in both traditional and new skills areas. This paper analyses the views of construction employers in relation to the response strategies promoted by industry and government and identified in previous research which tackle elements of the skills shortage problem within the UK construction industry. The paper describes seven existing industry and government schemes, and a further nine alternative response strategies to the construction skills shortage. The survey analysis demonstrates that construction employers support: (i) the Construction Skills Certification Scheme, (ii) the Investors in People standard, (iii) economic stability within the industry; (iv) long term industry-wide training plans, (v) a return to direct employment; and (vi) the development of new technologies and construction techniques. It is concluded that the effectiveness of alternative response strategies is linked to the traditional approach of most contractors.     

Cost vs. production: labour deployment and productivity in social housing construction in England,Scotland, Denmark and Germany

Labour deployment on representative large‐scale housing projects is analysed to reveal distinct differences between England, Germany, Scotland and Denmark. In the light of the debates on convergence/divergence of HRM systems and qualitatively different production systems, the paper is apposite in demonstrating structural differences in the organization of the construction process, their implications for efficiency and productivity, and their impact on employment and contract relations, innovation and skills. The effects of the overriding cost rationale of the British system are illustrated in terms of labour deployment and the efficiency and productivity of the site construction process. Labour deployment is based on the rationale of extensive subcontracting, with main contractors providing the management and cost function whilst their productive capacity rests on subcontracting supply chains. The main contractor has come to specialize in two areas, costing and the management of the process. Subcontractors provide all production personnel and thus the production knowledge for carrying out the work packages and stages. On the continent, in contrast, the economic rationale is different, as main contractors do not depend nearly as much on the production capacity of subcontracting.     

浅议建筑施工企业如何规避劳动用工中的法律风险

劳动用工风险是企业经营管理风险中的一种,企业通过加强人力资源管理、完善企业规章制度、规范分包管理行为,保留管理过程中的相关证据,可以有效减少劳动争议的发生。     

基于演化博弈的建筑工人流动行为研究

建筑劳务市场处于不完全信息条件下,建筑工人流动与用工企业挽留呈现动态博弈关系。运用演化博弈论的思想和方法,构建演化博弈模型,分析不同条件下演化稳定策略,探索用工单位的挽留措施对建筑工人流动行为的影响。结果表明,目前用工模式下,用工单位是否采取挽留措施,建筑工人均会选择流动。政府作为第三方,应该积极推动目前用工模式改革,引导建筑工人有序流动。     

劳务分包管理中的“风险源”辨识及防范--基于某项目劳务分包退场的思考

本文首先对劳务分包退场事件各阶段进行了回顾,并对劳务分包单位退场原因及“风险源”进行了分析,最后提出了“风险源”在分包管理中的防范措施。为提高施工效率和企业经济效益。增进企业健康、持续发展能力,提供了可以借鉴的理论及实践方法。     

谈建筑企业总分包业务关系中涉税与会计事项处理

2008年11月国务院令第540号《中华人民共和国营业税暂行条例》的发布,改变了原来建筑工程总分包业务关系中分包单位营业税由总包单位代扣代缴的做法,从而引起营业税缴纳和会计核算事项的改变。本文就这些变化提出了建筑施工企业在总承包与分包业务关系中涉税与会计事项的处理办法。