Rethinking State-Labour Relations in Vietnam: New Dynamics in Resolving Labour Disputes
28 Pages Posted: 1 Sep 2014
Date Written: August 30, 2014
Abstract
The surge of foreign capital into the Vietnamese economy has brought about new challenges in industrial relations accompanied by the rising labour disputes. Previous research has explored the politics of strikes in Vietnam where trade unions are tied to the party state bureaucracy and collective bargaining is practically limited. These studies, however, have overlooked the significance of labour disputes within the transforming relations between the state and society in Vietnam. They do not indicate how contemporary labour disputes reveal new dynamics at work between the state and labour in Vietnam, especially in the way they trigger new regulatory moves from the state authorities. My paper contends that regulatory adjustments to resolving labour disputes constitute a reform of bureaucratic practices in dealing with industrial tensions that goes beyond corporatist approach. The proposition will be illustrated through legal and policy changes in regard to the resolution and prevention of labour disputes in Vietnam. It is suggested that these reforms provide a platform for workers to voice their grievances; at the same time enhancing the state’s capacity to manage industrial relations in the absence of independent trade unions.
Keywords: labour disputes, state and society, dispute resolution, bureaucracy, Vietnam
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