Asia-Pacific: Governments crack down on the use of agency and temporary workers

In the last year, we have seen governments across the Asia-Pacific region tightening their laws and regulations relating to the use of agency (dispatch) and temporary workers. At least in some cases, this is in response to a perceived over-reliance by companies on agency and temporary workers, which has led to allegations of abuse.

For example in a high-profile case in China, Gucci was criticised for using a large number of agency workers in its retail stores in China following allegations of “abuse”, including allegations that pregnant women workers had miscarried because of the highly stressful working environment on the shop floor.

Changes to outsourcing and agency worker arrangements have taken place in Japan, Korea, Australia, China, Vietnam and Indonesia and are summarised in a post on our Employment blog.