Barriers to Independent Unionism: Why Vietnam's 2019 Labour Law Failed to Launch Internal Employee Organisations (IEOs) (Anne Cox, University of Wollongong, Australia)

Friday, September 27, 2024
12:00pm - 1:30pm ET
Labor Education Center (Cook Campus), Room 115
 

In-person Attendance: Please RSVP to Laura Walkoviak (lauraann@smlr.rutgers.edu).
Lunch will be provided.

Zoom Attendance: Click here to register for Zoom streaming.

For more information, contact Mingwei Liu (mingwei@smlr.rutgers.edu)

Abstract

The 2019 Vietnamese Labour Law, which came into effect on January 1, 2021, allows for the establishment of workers' representative organizations, known as Internal Employee Organisations (IEOs), independent of the official trade unions under the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour. This reflects the widespread, ongoing industrial conflicts marked by illegal wildcat strikes led by unofficial workers' representatives due to the absence of effective trade union representation. The new legislative framework is seen as a significant step toward industrial democracy, with the potential to shift the dynamics of workplace representation in Vietnam. The expected outcomes—such as improvements in working conditions, better law enforcement, and more effective conflict resolution—have yet to materialize. More than three years have passed since the legislation was enacted, yet no IEO has been established to date.

This seminar will offer an in-depth analysis of why this is the case. It will provide an overview of the current state of Vietnamese trade unions and the labor dispute landscape in the country. Furthermore, it will demonstrate how Vietnam's corporatist and authoritarian political system has adapted to maintain its longevity and legitimacy in the era of globalization. Finally, the seminar will outline a research agenda focused on the conditions necessary for the emergence, development, and future function of IEOs.

About the Speaker

Dr. Anne Cox is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Business, Faculty of Business and Law, University of Wollongong. She has over 15 years of experience working as an HR practitioner, teaching, and conducting research in the field of Human Resource Management (HRM) across various countries, including Australia, the UK, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. A CiteSpace’s author analysis conducted in August 2023 shows that Anne is currently the most prominent author in the field of HRM in Vietnam, in terms of the number of publications and citations by other authors. Her research focuses on three primary areas: HRM in Asian countries, the transfer of multinational companies' HRM/IR policies and practices across borders, and gender equity. Anne is the lead author of the 'Human Resource Management' textbook (Stone, R., Cox, A., and Gavin, M. (2024) (11th ed.) Human Resource Management, John Wiley & Sons Australia), which is one of the most successful and longest-running Australian textbooks produced in the field of HRM.