ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes a critical perspective on the development of multistakeholder labor relations in the context of Vietnam’s integration into the global supply chains. The International Labour Organization (ILO) tripartite arrangements have inherent contradictions that do not necessarily improve workers’ welfare, and the impacts of trade agreements on labor reforms are ambiguous. Vietnamese workers remain lesser partners even when represented by the unions in Vietnam’s tripartite framework with the state and management. This chapter provides critical analysis of key labor relations issues such as the decisions made by the National Wage Council, the ambiguous implementation of the 2019 Labor Code Revisions on the controversial worker representative organizations (WROs), the limits of the workplace dialogues in Better Work Vietnam, and the nuanced impacts of free trade agreements on labor reforms such as freedom of association. It analyzes the patterns of spontaneous strike waves (1995–2020) to win short-term concessions and sheds light on some qualitative changes related to broader political concerns and labor informalization in the popular gig economy in Vietnam. The rising role of domestic and global civil society organizations in advocacy work for labor rights offers some hope to empower workers for genuine labor reforms.
