Employment Relations Responses of Asian NIEs to Globalisation

Employment Relations Responses of Asian NIEs to Globalisation

  This paper overviews employment relations in the Asian Newly Industrialised Economies (NIEs) of Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region, China), South Korea (Republic of Korea), Taiwan (Republic of China, ROC) and the Republic of Singapore in the context of globalisation, especially following the 1997 Asian economic crisis. The scope of the review enables international comparisons of labour market restructuring intended to increase employment flexibility. In South Korea, labour market transition has been accompanied by a reduction in the state regulation of trade unions and a weakening of the monopoly power of the chaebol, while in Taiwan it has led government to widen the scope of its activities in labour affairs. Hong Kong, which retains the labour institutions of the colonial era, has lost manufacturing employment to the PRC and this has had consequences for labour relations. Meanwhile, Singapore has embarked on a tripartite facilitated transition of employment relations to accommodate labour to the anticipated demands on the city-state of globalisation in the 21st Century. By reviewing labour market transition in the Asia Pacific region in response to the forces of globalisation, this paper attempts to explain the diversity of employment relations responses by the Asian NIE"s to the current and anticipated features of globalisation.