TY - JOUR T1 - Riots and Rights: Law and Exclusion in Singapore's Migrant Worker Regime JF - Asian Journal of Law and Society Y1 - 2015 A1 - Neo, Jaclyn KW - immigration KW - integration KW - migrant rights KW - migrant workers KW - Singapore KW - social exclusion AB -

This article examines the legal framework regulating unskilled and low-skilled migrant workers in Singapore. It argues that the current legal framework discriminates against these migrant workers and conceptualizes them as undesirable for inclusion in the wider society. This, it is contended, is premised on the assumption that migrant workers could be sequestered from the local population to some extent. This article provides some challenges to this assumption, highlighting instead some of the broader social and political consequences of this exclusionary legal framework. Consequently, it is argued that a more inclusive and integrationist approach is needed, and some positive developments are highlighted.

VL - 22 L2 - eng UR - http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2575016 CP - 1 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Impact of Trade Unions on Economic Performance: The Case of Singapore JF - Singapore Economic Review Y1 - 2014 A1 - Chew, Soon Beng KW - macro-focused union KW - Singapore KW - strategic collective bargaining KW - trade unions KW - union social responsibility AB -

Trade unions may exact a heavy cost on an economy, but there is one mode of trade unionism that will enable the trade union to play a positive role in economic development. This mode of unionism, which may be characterized as macro-focused, requires the trade union to work closely with the ruling party in order to contribute to economic development. The required symbiosis between such a trade union and the ruling party may not be sustainable when there is a change in government. This paper argues that a union can remain macro-focused as long as it is not part of any political party and therefore can work with any government regardless of which political party is in power. The paper will examine the various conditions, both economic and non-economic, under which such an outcome can exist and be sustainable. The paper will also analyze how a macro-focused union induces workers to join the union based on the results of a field survey of 690 respondents in Singapore.

VL - 59 L2 - eng ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Adjusting to Globalization Through Skills Development Strategies T2 - Globalization and Change in Asia Y1 - 2007 A1 - S. Kuruvilla ED - D. A. Rondinelli ED - Heffron, J. M. KW - developing countries KW - labor KW - national human resource policy KW - national skills development KW - Singapore KW - skill formation AB -

[Excerpt] The aim of this chapter is to describe and analyze the efforts at skills development in Singapore and in India's booming outsourcing sector. Singapore is an important case because it started its skills development efforts in the early 1980s at a time when outsourcing of manufacturing was just beginning, and it has become one of the best-known examples of a nation that has successfully and continuously upskilled its workforce over the past twenty-five years. India, on the other hand, is just beginning to focus on skills development, stimulated by the growth in outsourcing of high-end services such as software development and business process outsourcing (BPO) of financial and medical research and low-end services such as call centers.

JA - Globalization and Change in Asia PB - Lynne Rienner Publishers CY - Boulder, CO L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/216/ ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Change and Transformation in Asian Industrial Relations JF - Industrial Relations Y1 - 2002 A1 - S. Kuruvilla A1 - Erickson, C. KW - China KW - India KW - industrial relations KW - industrialization KW - Japan KW - Malaysia KW - Philippines KW - Singapore KW - South Korea AB -

Authors argue that industrial relations systems change due to shifts in the constraints facing those systems, and that the most salient constraints facing IR systems in Asia have shifted from those of maintaining labor peace and stability in the early stages of industrialization, to those of increasing both numerical and functional flexibility in the 1980s and 1990s. The evidence to sustain the argument is drawn from seven “representative” Asian IR systems: Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, and China. They also distinguish between systems that have smoothly adapted (Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines) and systems that have fundamentally transformed (China and South Korea), and hypothesize about the reasons for this difference.

VL - 41 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cbpubs/36/ CP - 2 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Beneath the Miracle: Labor Subordination in the New Asian Industrialism Y1 - 1989 A1 - Deyo, F. C. KW - Hong Kong KW - industrial relations KW - industrialism KW - Singapore KW - South Korea KW - Taiwan AB -

This important study examines the dynamics of the remarkable economic transformation of South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, which has been based in large measure on the production of manufactured goods for export. The competitive edge of these countries has in turn been rooted in the mobilization of a low-cost, disciplined, and productive workforce. This study seeks therefore to explain how East Asian governments and employers have attempted to manage this workforce. It also explores the extent to which workers are able to challenge management decisions and insert working-class agendas into public policy.


Beneath the Miracle moves beyond current explanations for the weakness of East Asian labor movements which emphasize Confucianist culture, material welfare gains, and political repression. It shows that the organizational capacity of workers has been more fundamentally undercut first by the nature of emergent East Asian employment systems, and second by the sequencing of developmental change, with political controls preceding rapid industrialization and preempting political and union organization of the growing industrial workforce. Deyo undertakes an incisive cross-national comparison of employment systems and explores anomalous situations, such as that in Hong Kong, where labor is politically weak even under minimal state controls, and that in South Korea, where labor is in a stronger position despite far stricter regulation.

Beneath the Miracle offers a fresh and compelling comparative analysis of Asian labor movements which could lead to a reassessment of many other developmental issues in East Asia. In his probing examination, Deyo provides an important and exciting contribution to the literature in this field. (publisher's statement)

PB - University of California Press CY - Berkeley, CA L2 - eng ER -