This book focuses on new developments in employment in Asia. The context for this discussion is provided by the processes of globalisation, and the associated debate on labour standards. Individual chapters focus on issues such as the role of NGOs as surrogate unions, employment regulation in export processing zones, social protection, and the impact of political reform on the employment relationship. This volume was previously published as a special issue of the journal Asia Pacific Business Review.

Globalization and labour market deregulation have had an impact on employment and workers, and brought pressure to bear on trade unions. This study looks at the challenges of globalization and deregulation in the Asia Pacific, and possible responses to them in a variety of ways.

Reviews trends in labour relations in 6 countries in the Asia Pacific in the 1990s. Discusses challenges facing trade unions in the near future.

Important issues concerning labour and industrial relations necessarily arise as markets among the countries around the Pacific Ocean become more integrated. With economic activity levels as different as that of the United States and that of Papua New Guinea, and with labour forces ranging in size from that of China to that of the Sultanate of Brunei'not to mention a vast spectrum of diverse cultural standards and customs'this important regional grouping demands the attention of labour law specialists if trade integration is to proceed amicably and to the benefit of all. In this valuable book sixteen academics and other professionals in the field present informed and insightful essays on aspects of labour and industrial relations law in ten countries (Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, and the United States) as well as under the ASEAN regime. Among the imperative issues these authors elucidate are the following: collaboration within the firm to raise productivity; the need for competitiveness among firms; the importance of human relations and social responsibility; the development of social security policy; and reducing the risk and absorbing the benefits of integration under conditions of rapid social and industrial change. These papers were originally presented in 2001 in a report by the Peruvian labour journal Análisis Laboral, in response to a request by the Regional Office of the International Labour Organisation for a study of employment conditions, labour relations, and social security in the APEC countries as seen from a Latin American perspective. It was immediately apparent that many of the papers in this report were of great value to the international labour law community, and accordingly those papers are collected and reprinted here.

There has been enormous economic development in the Asia-Pacific region since 1945. Employment relations policies have changed rapidly in both the older industrialised market economies and in the newly industrialising economies. It is particularly interesting to compare the various recovery strategies of different countries following the economic turmoil of the late 1990s. The Japanese appeared to continue their pattern of life-time employment. In Australia and New Zealand there have been attempts to discontinue the award-wage system to foster international competitiveness. In South Korea, companies have demanded more flexibility to make it easier to dismiss workers. There has also been much change in other countries, for example, moves towards deregulation in China, Indonesia and Taiwan.This book considers human resource initiatives in the workplace and industrial relations reform from the perspectives of employers, managers, unions and academics, in particular in Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Taiwan, and in the Asia-Pacific region generally.Employment Relations in the Asia-Pacific is essential reading for practitioners and students of industrial relations and human resource management at graduate and undergraduate levels, and for specialists in international business and economics, trade unions, employer associations and government.