The aim of this programme is to provide updated information and critical analysis about the existing labour laws and social security and possible reforms in the Asian region. AMRC will also conduct regional and sub regional sharing with different labour groups on this issue to further promote debate on labour law and social security for all.

AMRC will provide updated information about the labour law reforms in Asia through our regular and thematic tri-annual publication on labour laws in Asia. Besides this programme also aims to promote the discussion and debate on labour law reforms regionally and sub regionally by targeted workshops and conferences. In past AMRC has been successfully helping to organise such debates in China before the introduction of Labour Contract Law.  Labour Law reforms are taking place constantly in Asia and sometimes without the involvement of labour groups in a particular country like in Bangladesh, where military government is going to introduce a whole new labour law. AMRC also intends to provide online resources of all the existing labour laws in Asia based on our research for the past decade.

Like labour law, a majority of workers in Asia are also not covered by any social security and even if they are it is increasingly getting in the hands of corporate sector and workers have increasingly limited say in management of their social security. Every year millions of dollars are collected from workers in the name of social security in different Asian countries. This money is often invested in different financial instruments which could be risky and with no consultations with the contributors, i.e., the workers. Workers’ injury insurance is also being run in a similar manner and even though millions of dollars are collected, workers are hardly compensated while companies sit on a pool of money originally intended to compensate victims. AMRC has in past carried out a comparative analysis of eight Asian countries and shown how compensation money was being used. AMRC will collect more information about the management of workers’ social security and help to promote debates in different regions and sub-regions on this issue.