Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Women, Labour Standards, and Labour Organisation

  • Chapter
Women Workers in Industrialising Asia

Part of the book series: Studies in the Economies of East and Southeast Asia ((SEESEA))

  • 100 Accesses

Abstract

The provision of adequate labour standards is of vital significance to women workers in Asia’s industrial work forces. Women form a significant proportion of the total labour force — except in South Asia (Horton, 1996: 8; Brasted, 2000: 199–201) — and in some industries, notably garments, are an overwhelming percentage. Since women generally work in the lowest-paid jobs, with the lowest security of employment, and often work long hours in unsatisfactory working conditions, the acceptance and enforcement of good labour standards and practices has become a matter of critical concern.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Asia Women Workers Newsletter (1997) January.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, Donald et al. (2002) International Business: The Challenge of Global Competition, 8th International edn (Sydney: McGraw-Hill/Irwin).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bangkok Post (2001) 30 May.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brasted, Howard (2000) ‘Piecing together the Jigsaw: Indian Women in the Urban Wage Labour Force’, Asian Studies Review, 24, 2, June: 195–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Breman, Jan (2001) ‘An Informalised Labour System: End of Labour Market Dualism’, Economic and Political Weekly, XXXVI, 29 December: 4804–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, Andrew (2001) ‘After the Kader Fire: Labour Organising for Health and Safety Standards in Thailand’, in Andrew Brown and Jane Hutchison (eds), Organising Labour in Globalising Asia (Routledge: London) pp. 127–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, Drusilla K., Deardorff, Alan V. and Stern, Robert M. (1998) ‘Issues of Environmental and Labour Standards in the Global Trading System’, in Stanley W. Black (ed.), Globalisation, Technological Change, and Labor Markets (Boston and London: Kluwer) pp. 235–80.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Cambodia Constitution, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derry, Stephen and Michell, Richard (1994) ‘Introduction’, in Labour Law and Industrial Relations in Asia (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire) pp. 1–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Economist The (2001) ‘Multinationals are pressing their Asian suppliers to tolerate unions’, 1 December.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elliott, Kimberly Ann (2000) Preferences for Workers?: Worker Rights and the US Generalised System of Preferences (Washington: Institute for International Economics).

    Google Scholar 

  • Falkus, Malcolm, Brasted, Howard, Kaur, Amarjit, Blackburn, Susan and Wright, Denis (1997) Child Labour in Asia: Some Perspectives on Selected Countries (Canberra: Australian Government Printing Service).

    Google Scholar 

  • Frenkel, Stephen (ed.) (1993) Organised Labor in the Asia-Pacific Region (New York: ILR Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Guardian (1998) 8 January.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hensman, Rohini (1996) ‘Mimimum Labour Standards and Trade Agreements. An Overview of the Debate’, Economic and Political Weekly, 20–27 April: 1030–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (2001a) ‘The Impact of Globalisation on Employment in India and Responses from the Formal and Informal Sectors’, Clara Working Paper15 (Amsterdam: IIAS).

    Google Scholar 

  • (2001b) ‘World Trade and Workers’ Rights. To Link or Not to Link?’, Economic and Political Weekly, XXXV, 8 April: 1247–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horton, Susan (1996) ‘Women and Industrialisation in Asia: Overview’, in S. Horton (ed.), Women and Industrialisation in Asia (London and New York: Routledge) pp. 1–42.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Human Rights Watch (1998) ‘Bearing the Brunt of the Asian Economic Crisis: The Impact on Labor Rights and Migrant Workers in Asia’, Human Rights Watch, 10, 2, March. http://www.hrw.org/reports98/asialbr/

    Google Scholar 

  • ILO, Standard Setting Policy: Ratification and Promotion of Fundamental ILO Conventions (ILO: Geneva, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  • ILOLEX ILO database on International Labour Standards (http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/english/docs/declworld.htm). Accessed, 30 August 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fundamental ILO Conventions (http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/norm/whatare/fundam/index.htm). Accessed, 20 May 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • ICFTU-APRO (2000) Labour Statistics on Employment for Women (www.icftuapro.org/aplabour).

    Google Scholar 

  • — (2001) (International Confederations of Free Trade Unions, Asia and Pacific Organisation), Survey on Maternity Protection in SoutheastAsia, June. (www.icftuapro.org/aplabour), 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (2001a) Survey on Maternity Protection in South Asia (www.icftuapro.org/aplabour), April.

    Google Scholar 

  • ICFTU-APRO (2001b) Survey on Sexual Harrassment in the Workplace (www.icftuapro.org/aplabour), August.

    Google Scholar 

  • IMF Survey (1997) 9 June.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, Harold (2001) The End of Globalisation: Lessons from the Great Depression (Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaur, Amarjit (forthcoming) Wage Labour in SoutheastAsia Since 1840 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).

    Google Scholar 

  • Krugman, Paul (1994) ‘Does Third World Growth Hurt First World Prosperity?’, Harvard Business Review, July-August.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, Eddy (1997) ‘Globalisation and Labour Standards: A Review of Issues’, International Labor Review, 136, 2: 173–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menon, Sindhu (1999) ‘Spectre of Death Haunts Construction Industry’, Labour File, 5, 1–4, Jan.–Apr., 1999: 20–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • New Scientist (2002) ‘Time to Rethink Everything. The Great Globalisation Debate’, Part I, See also essays by George Soros, Susan George, Hernando de Soto and Amartya Sen, pp. 30–52, 27 April.

    Google Scholar 

  • NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) (1995) ‘Preventing Deaths and Injuries of Adolescent Workers’, NIOSH Alert, Publication 95–125, May.

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD (2000) International Trade and Core Labour Standards (Paris: OECD).

    Google Scholar 

  • Rock, Marilyn (1995) ‘Labour Issues in India in an Era of Radical Economic Reform in the 1980s and 1990s with Particular Reference to Women’, in John McGuire and Peter Reeves (eds), Labour Issues in South Asia, Research Paper No. 6, June: 10–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, George (1996) Economic Development in Asia (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing).

    Google Scholar 

  • Saini, Debi S. (1999) ‘Labour Legislation and Social Justice. Rhetoric and Reality’, Economic Political Weekly, Electronic version: http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles, 25 September.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siddiqi, Dina M. (2000) ‘Miracle Worker or Womanmachine? Tracking (Trans)national Realities in Bangladesh Factories’, Economic and Political Weekly, 27 May: L11-L17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, A. and Zammit, A. (2000) The Global Labour Standards Controversy: Critical Issues for Developing Countries (Geneva: South Centre).

    Google Scholar 

  • Symonds, Peter (1997) Industrial Inferno: The Story of the Thai Toy Factory Fire (Bankstown, NSW: Labor Press Books).

    Google Scholar 

  • UNHCR (2001) Ratification of the Principal Human Rights Treaties (Geneva: UNHCR).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, Denis (2001) ‘Industrialisation and the Changing Role of Women in Bangladesh’, Asian Studies Review, 24, 2, June: 231–42.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. H. V. Brasted
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of New England, Australia

    Amarjit Kaur (Professor of Economic History) (Professor of Economic History)

Copyright information

© 2004 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Brasted, H.V. (2004). Women, Labour Standards, and Labour Organisation. In: Kaur, A. (eds) Women Workers in Industrialising Asia. Studies in the Economies of East and Southeast Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230596702_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation