Workplace (in)justice, law and labour resistance in Vietnam

Abstract

The limitations of the Labour Code and its implementation in Vietnam have been identified by scholars as the main reasons for the phenomenon of wildcat strikes since the country’s economic opening in the early 1990s. Yet there has been little analysis concerning how workers themselves perceive the Labour Code and other aspects of labour law, and how labour law matters in workers’ resistance to workplace injustice. This thesis aims to fill this gap, addressing the question ‘How does labour law shape labour resistance in Vietnam?’ Adopting a socio-legal approach, the thesis understands labour law as a combination of three things: (1) the labour law regime, which includes legal institutions and processes set out in the Labour Code and other measures to enhance its implementation; (2) the language used in the Code and the values and understandings embedded in it; and (3) the practices through which the Code and associated state policies and regulations are implemented (or not implemented) by officials, factory managers, and others. The thesis develops an understanding of labour law from workers’ perspectives. It examines the extent to which workers’ values and ideas about justice are shaped by and conform with, on the one hand, the language of the labour law regime and the values embedded in that language, and on the other hand, experiences and discourse that differ from those language and values. Based on seven months of qualitative fieldwork conducted in 2014 and 2015 and an investigation of factory strikes and workers’ complaint letters in Đồng Nai Province, an industrial hub in the south of Vietnam, the thesis argues that labour law is only one factor shaping workers’ articulation of what is fair and unfair and generating their resistance to injustice. The way workers turn (or do not turn) to labour law depends on their perceptions of the relationship between law and the morality of workplace behaviour. These perceptions, in turn, are constructed through their experiences on the shop floor and with legal institutions and processes, and are shaped also by socialist ideology and longstanding cultural norms. Most workers use legal language to amplify their moral judgements, underpinned by the norm of subsistence, reciprocity, and respectful treatment. A smaller group of workers deploy legal language to condemn illegal practices and call for a proper implementation of law. However, they also combine their legal claims with moral ones. These moral claims are shaped by both values underpinning certain articles of the Labour Code, longstanding cultural norms, and the socialist value of equality. The relationship between law and morality becomes fluid when they complement and intertwine with each other in workers’ appeals. This thesis makes an original contribution to the study of law and resistance in post-socialist regimes by suggesting that the relationship between law and morality is complex and mutually reinforcing. It sheds light on the different values underpinning workers’ experiences of (un)fairness, understandings of their rights, and claims for justice.