Takashi Araki

The seven national reports (Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan) included in this volume provide an overview of the regulation of union organization, collective bargaining, and industrial disputes. These reports also analyze the role of government in industrial relations in the course of economic development. In regulations on formation of labour unions, some countries, such as Japan, have the least government intervention whereas other countries, for example Korea and Taiwan, have experienced more direct government control through imposition of certain forms of labour unions or registration requirements and procedures. The same applies to regulations on collective bargaining and industrial disputes. For instance, in Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia violation of collective agreements is not only sanctioned by civil liability but is also criminally punished. A review of the national reports reveals that while diversity in labour laws exists in the Asian countries represented, the significant role of government in labour relations is widely recognized.

The Process of Industrialization and the Role of Labor Law in Asian Countries

Roger Blanpain

Shinya Ouchi

While legislation protecting employees exists in most advanced countries, the notion of who actually is an employee has become unstable. Moreover, the decentralization of traditional collective bargaining is clearly under way everywhere, and the all-important balance between workers' security and employers' flexibility continues to change radically, either retreating toward individual statutory rights or seeking new forms of employee representation. Labour Law in Motion reprints sixteen reports originally submitted to the seventh Comparative Labor Law Seminar (Tokyo Seminar) sponsored by the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training in March 2004. Eleven expert authors describe the situation in their respective countries with regard to issues such as the following:criteria used to determine whether a person is an employee;what categories of non-employee exist, and what measure of statutory protection is afforded to such persons;variations in the concept of employee among labour law, tax law, and social security law;regulation of terms and conditions of employment; the forms and legal nature of employee representation;current trends in deregulation or `re-regulation' of labour laws;mechanisms permitting deviation from legal norms; and,the manner and extent of labour law intervention in the labour market. All eleven authors emphasize recent and ongoing changes in their countries' labour laws and evaluate the factors that have contributed to such changes. Each author concludes that reform of traditional labour laws is indeed necessary. However, the book as a whole clearly demonstrates that the content of such reform differs from country to country, particularly in the extent to which labour law entrusts the regulation of working conditions to the market. Offering as it does a clear and concise summary of the recent and current experience of labour relations in eight major industrialized countries, Labour Law in Motion is an essential resource for professionals and officials engaged in any aspect of labour law or regulation in any country.

Takashi Araki

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