How Old-School Factories Stay Alive in China's South

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Alexandra Harney, How Old-School Factories Stay Alive in China's South. Reuters, May 21, 2016.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-labour-idUSKCN0YD00L

Quote:

"Factory owners in this leatherworking town[Shiling 廣州市花都区 狮岭镇], and in those nearby, say just-in-time labor allows them to stay competitive, even if day wages can be higher, individually, than full-time salaries.

" 'We never used to hire temporary workers, because labor costs were not very high. Our workers were on staff,' said Huang Biliang, who runs a button factory in the southern city of Dongguan. 'But recently we've started to hire more temporary labor.'

"this is a change for China, where authorities have sought to crack down on precarious employment, introducing tougher rules in 2012 to protect so-called 'dispatch' workers 劳务派遣工.  China wants to shift away from piece-work toward a high-tech consumer economy. Shiling's experience suggests, however, that casual labor could help the country's plethora of small manufacturers remain sellers of cheap shoes, toys and stainless steel pans for a few years yet.

"the use of undocumented day laborers by factories is hard to capture in statistics" in China

Note:
(a) dispatched labor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispatched_labor
(b) "Ben Simpendorfer 具哲民, managing director of consultancy Silk Road Associates 丝路顾问公司"