...Industrial relations in Vietnam are undergoing substantial changes as a consequence of the Đổi mới[2] economic opening process and the concomitant restructuring of the Vietnamese economy towards a global market economy of socialist orientation. These relations were relatively harmonious up until the year 2004, but since 2005 a dramatic increase in the number of strikes has been observed. The right to strike was only granted to Vietnamese workers when the Labour Code came into force in 1995. In subsequent years, however, there were only isolated cases of strikes (see figure 1). Over the years, the pattern of strikes has been relatively uniform until 2005 where the trend was interrupted in 2005 by a steep increase. The wave of strikes reached its first peak in 2008 with 762 strikes and after a short-lived decline, the number of strikes reached a new record value of 981 in 2011. Since then, some calm has returned with 539 strikes in 2012 and 355 in 2013.[3] Nonetheless, there is evidence that, in Vietnam, labour relations are reflecting the different interests of workers and capital.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 21:15:21 +0000