COVID-19 in Southeast Asia: Implications for workers and unions

The labour market effects in Southeast Asia of the COVID-19 pandemic have attracted considerable analysis from both scholars and practitioners. However, much less attention has been paid to pandemic’s impact on legal protections for workers’ unions’ rights, or what might account divergent outcomes this respect economies that share many characteristics, including a strong export orientation labour-intensive industries weak industrial relations institutions. Having described public health measures taken control spread Indonesia, Cambodia Vietnam, article analyses governments’ employment-related responses their workers unions first year pandemic. Based analysis, we conclude disruption caused these countries’ economies, societies, served reproduce existing patterns state–labour rather than overturning them.