Labor rights have undoubtedly improved with democratization of countries specifically in East

Asia. Inspite of this, the gap of the collective labor laws of the countries of this region and the
international labor standards is still wide. In terms of individual labor rights, the East Asia region has
slightly higher levels of protection than the rest of the countries in the world considering firing costs. It
can also be seen that democratic countries has stronger individual labor rights compared to non-
democratic countries. Most of the regions countries revised their laws to offer greater individual
protection from the vicissitude of the market except for South Korea who has reformed its labor laws
which increased the labor market flexibility. However, in recent years, South Korea enacted a new law
for protection. Thus, the claims that flexible labor market is a trigger in the good economic
performance of the region cannot be fully trusted.

The countries in East Asia region has also interestingly clustered themselves according on their
stand on the collective and individual rights. There are countries that revised their laws for the raising of
collective labor laws while inheriting that protective legacy of the past. China, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand
and Singapore also grouped themselves in which promotes highly flexible individual labor rights. It is
important to take note that for both individual and collective rights, enforcement is strongly correlated
with income level. This means richer countries enforce their laws more effectively than the poorer
countries. Poor enforcement has toxic effect on labor rights right now compared to before
democratization since back then, labor laws were repressive. Therefore, to provide better warrant of
collective labor rights and stronger protection for individual labor rights, effective enforcement is of high
importance.