Employment laws across Asia are multifarious and it’s a big challenge to be across them all. In response to this, the Freehills Workplace Law & Advisory–Asia team in Singapore has prepared with local firms a comprehensive guide summarising the employment laws in each major jurisdiction across Asia.
‘This guide is a high level summary of key employment laws in all the main Asian jurisdictions,’ said George Cooper, Practice Leader, Workplace Law & Advisory–Asia. Mr Cooper works extensively with clients that need to be on top of the latest legal developments. ‘We have been operating proactively in the region for over two years and we know the areas of interest for multi-national companies,’ continued Mr Cooper. ‘We know the challenges. These include preparing employment contract templates, policies and handbooks for regional use, managing international employment mobility and termination of employment. Currently, regional restructure and retrenchment programs are a focus.’
Topics in the guide are reviewed succinctly and include minimum statutory terms, termination of employment, discrimination and harassment, occupational health and safety, regulation of outsourcing and contracting and industrial relations.
The Asia Employment Law Guide 2009 is for line management, in-house counsel and senior human resources managers within multinational organisations who have regional responsibilities across Asia. It is a must-have publication because the legal regimes, attitudes and practices in the field of employment law vary as much from one Asian country to another, as do the cultures, languages and history.
The jurisdictions covered in the Asia Employment Law Guide 2009 include Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, The Philippines and Vietnam.
The guide is in the same format in every chapter. ‘You can easily compare systems from country to country,’ said Mr Cooper. ‘It is simple to follow and contains the key information. It is deliberately succinct because this is what regional managers want as a starting point.’
Freehills’ Celia Yuen, Senior Associate, was instrumental in the development of the guide. Davide Boffi, a senior employment lawyer on secondment from Toffoletto e Soci—a leading Italian firm—also worked on the guide. Freehills and Toffoletto e Soci are co-members of Ius Laboris, a global alliance of employment law firms.
Collaboration has been key in the development of the Asia Employment Law Guide 2009. Freehills’ partner firms in Indonesia and Vietnam, as well as local counsel in the other jurisdictions, have contributed important local knowledge to make the guide relevant to all requiring employment law guidance in Asia.
‘The guide is useful because it brings together so many things,’ said Mr Cooper. ‘At first glance Asian employment law can be mind bogglingly difficult. There are many expat Australians, Europeans and Americans assuming responsibility in this area across many Asian countries. The detail of the law and the differences are very confronting and difficult to deal with. Our guide pulls it all together and will help people through the process.’
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