Law and Labour Market Regulation in East Asia

Hyllman²

2011

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences in Organizing Between Unions and NGOs: Conflict and Cooperation Among Swedish Unions and NGOs

Hyllman²

2011

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“…As many have noted, national legislative frameworks in countries such as China and Vietnam are well developed (e.g., Warner, 1996;Chan, 1998;Ding and Warner, 1999;Cooney et al, 2002). However, there are large gaps between labour law and corporate practice in most developing countries, especially in countries, such as China, with recently amended labour laws (e.g., Zhu and Fahey, 1999;Lau, 2001;Liew, 2001;Cooney et al, 2002;Chen, 2003;Cooke, 2004;Frenkel and Kim, 2004). In practice, this means that when transnational corporations (TNCs) offshore operations, mainly to Asian countries, they are involving themselves in national industrial relations systems characterised by only limited enforcement of workers' rights.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

TNC Motives for Signing International Framework Agreements: A Continuous Bargaining Model of Stakeholder Pressure

2008

Over the past decade, discussion has flourished among practitioners and academics regarding workers' rights in developing countries. The lack of enforcement of national labour laws and the limited protection of workers' rights in developing countries have led workers' rights representatives to attempt to establish transnational industrial relations systems to complement existing national systems. In practice, these attempts have mainly been operationalised in unilateral codes of conduct; recently, however, negotiated international framework agreements (IFAs) have been proposed as an alternative. Despite their growing importance, few studies have empirically studied IFAs. This paper starts to fill this gap by studying why corporations adopt IFAs, based on a qualitative study of the process leading to the signing of a recent IFA. The study's findings complement existing research into why corporations adopt IFAs, codes of conduct, and CSR policies by demonstrating that corporate motives can be linked to a desire to retain a trusting relationship with the labour union movement. In addition, the findings indicate that the discrete campaign model of stakeholder pressure dominant in previous research should be complemented by a continuous bargaining model of stakeholder pressure. The paper concludes by discussing differences between these conceptual models of stakeholder pressure and avenues for future research.

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“…In contrast, the national settings of predominantly Asian developing countries have increased in importance. Many of these countries have fairly stringent labour laws similar to those in Europe and the USA, and countries such as China and Vietnam have recently profoundly changed their labour laws (Warner, 1996;Chan, 1998;Ding and Warner, 1999;Cooney et al, 2002). However, there are large gaps between labour law and corporate practice in these countries, especially in those with recently changed labour laws (Zhu and Fahey, 1999;Lau, 2001;Liew, 2001;Cooney et al, 2002;Chen, 2003;Cooke, 2004;Frenkel and Kim, 2004).…”

Section: A Changing Industrial Relations Landscape Trend I: From Natimentioning

confidence: 95%

Transnational Governance of Workers’ Rights: Outlining a Research Agenda

2008