Labour disputes in Southeast Asia

Summary

This project examined the ‘Formal and Informal Regulation of Collective Labour Disputes in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam’. It is funded by an ARC Discovery Grant (2019-2025) (DP190100821).

Researchers

• Professor Carolyn Sutherland
• Professor Richard Mitchell
• Dr Petra Mahy (University of Melbourne)
• Dr Ingrid Landau
• Professor John Howe (University of Melbourne)
• Dr Amanda Darshini Selvarajah
• Dr Trang Thi Kieu TRAN (Deakin University)
• Dr Wayne Palmer  (Bielefeld University)

Project Background and Aims

This project investigated regulatory pluralism in the resolution of labour disputes in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. It examined a diversity of state and non-state based regulatory processes, actors and practices in the three countries, and considered how these interact to shape outcomes for workers. Important findings from the project consider how customary practices become formalised over time; how disputants shape outcomes by adopting informal practices and co-ordinating with informal actors to shift economic and political forces underpinning disputes; how perceptions of actor legitimacy influence dispute behaviour; and how private labour dispute resolution mechanisms in global supply chains interact with public frameworks.

Methodology

The project used a combination of doctrinal legal analysis, comparative legal analysis and empirical research methods and contributed to understandings about comparative legal methodology and anthropology (see publications below).

Publications Related to this Project

• Carolyn Sutherland and Amanda Darshini Selvarajah, 'Resolving Labour Disputes in the Philippines: Legitimacy and Effectiveness in a Polycentric Regulatory Framework' (2025) 52(3) Journal of Law and Society 480. See also the related blogpost for this article.
• Trang Thi Kieu Tran (2024) 'Collective Labour Dispute Resolution in Vietnam: A Regulatory Pluralism Approach' (PhD thesis, Monash University).
• Petra Mahy (August 2024), 'Anthropology and Labour Law' in Research Methods in Labour Law: A Handbook, edited by Alysia Blackham and Sean Cooney (Edward Elgar).
• Ingrid Landau (August 2024), 'Evolving Themes and Approaches in Comparative Labour Law' in Research Methods in Labour Law: A Handbook, edited by Alysia Blackham and Sean Cooney (Edward Elgar).
• Petra Mahy, Richard Mitchell, John Howe, Ingrid Landau and Carolyn Sutherland (2024), ‘Qualitative Fieldwork’ in Cambridge Handbook of Comparative Law, edited by Mathias Siems and Po Jen Yap (CUP).
• Ingrid Landau, John Howe, Trang Thi Kieu Tran, Petra Mahy and Carolyn Sutherland, ‘Regulatory Pluralism and the Resolution of Collective Labour Disputes in Southeast Asia,’ Journal of Industrial Relations 65(4): 472-496
• Petra Mahy (2022), ‘Indonesia’s Omnibus Law on Job Creation: Legal Hierarchy and Responses to Judicial Review in the Labour Cluster of Amendments,’ Asian Journal of Comparative Law, 17(1)
• Petra Mahy (2021) 'Indonesia's Omnibus Law on Job Creation: Reducing Labour Protections in a Time of COVID-19', Labour Equality and Human Rights (LEAH) Research Group, Working Paper no. 23, Monash University.
• Wayne Palmer (2021) Labour Law and Labour Dispute Resolution in the Philippines (Labour Disputes in Southeast Asia, Monash University).
• Wayne Palmer (2020) Labour Law and Labour Dispute Resolution in Indonesia (Labour Disputes in Southeast Asia, Monash University).
• Petra Mahy (2020) 'COVID-19 and Labour Law: Indonesia', Italian Labour Law E-Journal, v. 13(1S)
• Petra Mahy, Richard Mitchell, John Howe and Maria Azzurra Tranfaglia, (2019) ‘What is Actually Regulating Work? A Study of Restaurants in Australia and Indonesia’ in Re-Imagining Labour Law for Development: Informal Work in the Global North and South, edited by Diamond Ashiagbor (Hart Publishing).
• Ingrid Landau and Fang Lee Cooke (2018) ‘Employment Regulation and Industrial Relations in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam’ in Routledge Handbook of Human Resource Management in Asia, edited by Fang Lee Cooke and Sunghoon Kim (Routledge).
• Petra Mahy, Richard Mitchell, Sean Cooney and John Howe (2017) The Plural Regulation of Work: A Pilot Study of Restaurant Workers in Yogyakarta Indonesia(Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law, University of Melbourne).
• Petra Mahy (2016) ‘The Functional Approach in Comparative Socio-Legal Research: Reflections Based on a Study of Plural Work Regulation in Australia and Indonesia’, International Journal of Law in Context 12(4): 47-67.
• Ingrid Landau, Petra Mahy and Richard Mitchell (2015) ‘The Regulation of Non-Standard Forms of Employment in India, Indonesia and Viet Nam’ (ILO INWORK Working Paper no. 63).