This article examines the role of social insurance law in the survival strategies of factory workers in Vietnam, especially when they are faced with pressing family needs and an uncertain future. Despite the official discourse of the law which encourages employees to accumulate social insurance for their pension benefits, workers in this study have considered their social insurance fund as a form of saving and opted to gain early access to it when they are in desperate need of money. Workers understand and use the law in a way that answers to their needs; however, such action simultaneously puts them outside the protection of the law. In workers' daily struggles, law generates a moral tension between rights and needs, and ultimately perpetuates their precarious, vulnerable condition. The article demonstrates how workers' legal consciousness varies according to their perception of their precariousness, a precariousness generated by the fragile nature of their work and underpinned by their traditional familial moral obligations. This research advances our understanding of the way state law in postsocialist regimes informs social action and consciousness in ways that oftentimes contradict the spirit of the law.

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Through a case study of workers’ protests to demand owed wages and social insurance benefits after foreign management had suddenly fled the country, this article discusses the moral and legal dynamics of labor dispute resolution in Vietnam. It examines the local government’s use of extralegal measures, which combine a tactical deployment of the law and moral responsibility, in brokering a resolution. The article argues that these measures, while aimed at addressing the legal challenges of supporting affected workers in the event of these so-called “cicada practices,” are limited in satisfying workers’ demands for justice as workers struggle to claim their legal rights and overcome their precariousness.

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