Abstract
This chapter investigates the grievances and demands of workers interviewed in 2014 and 2015 who had been involved in strikes in six selected companies in Đông Nai Province, and includes an in-depth discussion of one company case study. In justifying their grievances concerning wages and working conditions, most workers provide an understanding of workplace relationships drawn from moral norms of subsistence and reciprocity, and call upon management and the state to uphold their moral obligations. The chapter argues that interviewed workers exhibit consciousness of their basic social rights, which are broader than but somehow overlap with legal rights granted in the Labour Code. The relationship between these rights in turn demonstrates the fluidity between values derived from law and other sets of norms in shaping workers’ views and expressions of justice.
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Notes
- 1.
As far as I understand, if we consider this issue from the management’s perspective, not adding all wage rises to the basic wage would reduce the legal amount of management’s contribution to workers’ social insurance. Tâm and other interviewed workers in this company did not explicitly perceive the problem as such but only showed concern with the income they receive.
- 2.
The responsibility money (tiền trách nhiệm) is paid to workers in the storage section, the hazard compensation (tiền độc hại) is given to those working in the wastage and cleaning sections, and the diligence reward (tiền chuyên cần) is only paid in full to those who work the full number of working days in a month.
- 3.
These details about the diligence reward and different implementation across companies were obtained from workers and strike records.
- 4.
The word ‘đì’ is a popular term used when one is discriminated against or is badly treated, yet I find that the translations of discrimination or maltreatment do not adequately capture the harsh situations that workers endured.
- 5.
It is not possible to precisely trace whether these understandings come from the Labour Code or from workers’ life experiences and social interactions.
- 6.
I will come back to how this worker obtained his legal knowledge in Chap. 4.
- 7.
If the company applies this type of payment, the payment will take effect when employees finish certain assigned tasks. With this type of payment and work organisation, more experienced and productive workers, who spend less time finishing the assigned work, are not paid more for each task, but can complete more tasks and therefore earn more money each month than others.
- 8.
Scholars commonly focus on how the disadvantaged and marginalised make sense of and use law, and do not examine how it is viewed by those with resources and in positions of power, such as Mr An. However, the literature on sexual harassment and employees’ leave rights in the USA shows that management’s strategies and interpretation of law are among the factors that shape the employees’ inaction or reactions to their problems (Albiston 2005; Marshall 2003, 2005). My empirical examination of An’s stance on labour law will similarly complement and enhance our understanding of the workers’ experiences and their resistance.
- 9.
The format of the new payslips was not mentioned in the announcement. However, as I understood from interviews with workers before this strike broke out, a clear payslip should have details of the amount of completed work and overtime payment.
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Nguyen, T.P. (2019). On the Shop Floor. In: Workplace Justice. Critical Studies of the Asia-Pacific. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3116-9_3
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