Back to the future: workplace relations and labour law in the 21st century in the Asia Pacific context

Abstract

Modern labour law is a product of the industrial revolution. In an earlier age, the rights and obligations of capital and labour were status based, such as master and servant, or landowner and farmworker. The move into factories led to the demise of status‐based based obligations. In the initial stages, the wages‐for‐work performed transaction resulted in harsh working conditions and significant insecurity for most workers who lacked bargaining power. Labour law was developed, based on a notion of ‘employment’ resting on a contractual relationship between employer and employee with rights and obligations, shaped by statutory regulation. In the twenty‐first century, this notion of employment that undergirds labour law has been breaking down as we move into the information age. Technological change led to a digital or gig economy where IT platforms using algorithms can replace managers and workers are no longer employees, where labour law often does not apply, and where full‐time, stable employment is disappearing. The challenge is to devise a new labour law which focuses on the fundamental rights and needs of working people. How these changes will affect any specific country depends on its level of economic development, and its already established mechanisms for responding to disruptive changes. Advanced democratic countries may experience greater disruption and find it more difficult to form the consensus necessary to devise new policies and laws for supporting workers.