Labour Market And Industrial Relations In Vietnam

The society and economy of Vietnam is still characterised by a rapid transformation process. There is high economic and political pressure. coming not only from internal developments but also from foreign countries. This groundbreaking book takes stock of the rapid processes of change in the labour market and the industrial relations of Vietnam. The contributions of Vietnamese and international experts cover the institutional arrangements of the labour market and of the system of industrial relations, and they also look at consequences for welfare and social inequality and treat the relation between culture and the economy in the country. Further contributions compare Vietnam with other developing country and analyse the relationships between international and Vietnamese labour markets. They also address the key question as to whether Asia is a new focal point of industrial conflicts.

This essential reference reviews recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management and union relations in a sample of multi national companies (MNCs) and local firms in Vietnam. It addresses the transfer of human resources management (HRM) systems across borders and the transformation of HRM practices in Vietnam in the context of a developing and transitional economy. The book extensively examines the attraction of younger generations to HRM systems in developing countries, the ‘brain drain’ phenomenon and the local firms potentially losing commercial competitiveness in their own country. The book also reviews the catalyst role of MCNs in the management of human resources. Covers HRM in Vietnam – an area barely covered in other books Covers two of the most important types of enterprises in Vietnam: multinational companies and state-owned enterprises Contributes to knowledge in a number of key areas including globalisation, social transformation, and diffusion of best practice by multinational corporations

The transformation of the Vietnamese economy from socialist planning to a market economy has led to Vietnam having one of the fastest economic growth rates in the world; and to also to Vietnam engaging much more with the international economy, joining the World Trade Organisation in 2006. This book fills a significant gap by surveying the economic reforms in Vietnam, where most studies have concentrated on other ‘young tiger’ economies. In particular it discusses the transformation of employment relations which have been a key part of the reforms and a necessary pre-condition to WTO membership. It examines the nature of employment reforms, analyses the motivation behind new policy initiatives and examines the detail of reforms in a range of business enterprises, reporting on extensive original research. Throughout it shows how several key forces have interacted – globalisation, government political interests, national cultural norms, market, managerial ideology and the special characteristics of particular firms – to produce a particular Vietnamese brand of post-communist market economy. Overall, this book illuminates the how employment relation practices are formed in transitional economies, and more broadly the economic and political transformation of socialist economies in the context of the global market.

This book explores how capital-labour relations and antagonisms structure forms of militancy in Vietnam and shows that Vietnamese labour militancy is in line with global trends of worker activism. Vietnamese labour politics is undergoing significant changes, with a new Labour code that became law in 2021 allowing workers to join ‘worker representative organisations’ not subordinate to the state-led union or the ruling Communist Party. This book reflects on the nature of Vietnamese labour politics on the cusp of reform. It focuses on nominally formal labour within the garment and footwear industry in the southern part of the country, the author argues that while employment in the formal economy is expanding in terms of the absolute numbers of people working in formally registered firms, capital employs various ways to make conditions inside these companies increasingly insecure. In response, workers organise in forms of decentralised resistance. The book analyses two of these in detail; wildcat strikes and ‘microstrikes’—short collective work stoppages that occur inside workplaces. Arguing that labour resistance is structured in relation to capital’s behaviour, and not only because of weak labour relations institutions and mechanisms, this book makes a valuable contribution to the field of labour and social movement studies, development studies, sociology, and political economy and Southeast Asian Studies.

The field of employment and industrial relations is undergoing dramatic changes in the developed world; whilst developing economies are also experiencing their own shifts in practice and policy. The chapters in this collection provide detailed and up-to-date analyses of industrial relations developments in four contrasting economies: Australia, the United Kingdom, China and Vietnam. Readers are invited to make a comparative study of these very different regions and regimes. Chapters are contributed by leading authorities in employment and industrial relations and make the complex detail of new industrial relations laws easy to understand. This book is designed for students and scholars of employment and industrial relations, and provides an excellent reference for practitioners and students of labour economics and international and comparative human resource management.

This book explores the transformation of employment relations, the rise of worker protest and the reform of trade union practice to ask how successfully the state-socialist trade unions have adapted to their new role of representing the rights and interests of workers.