Viet Nam Human Rights
»
home
»
political-social
»
Protecting workers’ rights in Vietnam’s international integration
Protecting workers’ rights in Vietnam’s international integration
17/4/16
The
Vietnamese working class actually came into being at the early time of the
colonial exploitation by French colonialists (from 1897 to 1914). Centralized
industrial zones in Hanoi, Sai
Gon, Hai Phong, Nam Dinh,
Vinh - Ben Thuy, Hon Gai made up an increasingly number of workers... In these
circumstances, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) was founded July 29, 1929, is a national trade union in Vietnam aiming to protect
workers’ rights. All trade unions in Vietnam are required to affiliate
to the VGCL, and the VGCL is one of the mass movements of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front. The position of the Vietnamese trade
unions is acknowledged by the Constitution and laws of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the entire of workers and employees
as well.
"The trade unions, being the
socio-politic organization of the working class and the laboring people, in
cooperation with government agencies, economic and social entities, take care
of and safeguard the rights and interests of cadres, workers, employees and
other laboring people; participate in State administration and social
management, in the control and supervision of the State agencies, economic and
social entities; educates cadres, workers, employees and other laboring
people to do their utmost for national construction and defense". (Article 10 of the 1992 Constitution of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam)
Right after the promulgation of the
Constitution, the Law on Trade Unions has been issued in order to affirm and
clarify the roles, functions as well as rights and responsibilities of the
trade union organization.
The Vietnamese trade union is an
umbrella social-political organization voluntarily formed by working class,
intellectualists and workers in order to mobilize, consolidate forces and build
a working class strong in all aspects, to represent and protect lawful and
legitimate rights and interests of workers, striving for building an
independent and unified Vietnam towards the socialism. The Vietnamese
trade union is member of both the political system and the Vietnam Fatherland
Front. It is the centre for mobilization, unity, education, training, building
of the contingent of workers and employees.
The Trade Union
Law of 1990 was passed
and promulgated at the early stage of the transitional period to a market economy
in Vietnam. After nearly 20 years of coming into force, many provisions are no
longer suitable to today's reality and need supplements, revision. With
agreement from the National Assembly, recently the VGCL has taken the lead in
drafting the trade union law (revised). After several drafts, many debates,
discussions among trade unions, social partners, organizations concerned a
final draft has been completed and submitted to the National Assembly
(currently in session) for review and approval.
The
amended Labor Code marked fundamental changes to one of the most important
legal documents in protecting workers’ rights. The new Labor Code contains
other equally important amendments which are expected to greatly improve the
labor market and industrial relations in Viet Nam. The
amended Labor Code, of course, protects the rights of employers, but more
importantly, it better guards the rights and benefits of employees, who are
always more vulnerable in labor, and industrial relations. In which, there are many changes like longer
maternity leave for female workers, requirement for employers to
provide adequate training to their employees, etc.
I further appreciate the new
definition of wages in the amended Labor Code. Wages now include fixed
salaries, allowances and bonuses. Employers will now have to pay insurance for
their employees based on these wages. It is a significant difference from the
current situation where enterprises try to divide their employees' income into
many parts, with wages being only a fraction of the legal minimum. This helps
save a great deal of money on insurance for employers while employees have to
suffer.
The definition of minimum wages has
also been addressed. It is now required that the minimum living standards be
covered. Therefore, instead of adjusting minimum wages according to inflation,
the Government will have to do a survey and research minimum living standards
of different groups of people before setting new levels of minimum wages. Wages are the most problematic issue
in the labor market and industrial relations today. Some 80 per cent of work
disputes relate to wages. So if we have laws that arrange this issue properly,
disputes and strikes will surely decrease.
Moreover, the most significant
change in the law is labor negotiation, bargaining and work agreements giving
an adequate amount of space for explanation and outlines imperative activities
in order to improve labor relations in the country. With these amendments, many rights of workers have been protected
and enforced by the government and the VGCL, typically, the right to strike. Over the years, the pattern of strikes has been
relatively developed. The wave of strikes reached its first peak in 2008 with
762 strikes and has diversified into many forms.
On the
international integration process, the VGCL has joined with the International
Labor Organization (ILO) in many programs and activities to identify the role
of the trade unions in the promotion and protection of the rights of Vietnamese
migrant workers as well as foreign migrant workers in the country. An estimated
500,000 Vietnamese are working in more than 40 countries and territories around
the world. The Government of Viet Nam has a clear policy to promote labor
migration as an employment generation and poverty reduction strategy. The VGCL
has a mandate to deal with labor issues and initiate the development of labor
laws in order to protect the interest and rights of workers, including migrant
workers.
However, throughout
Vietnam’s integration into international economy, opportunists and criminals
have been starting up groups in the name of ‘protecting labors’ or ‘charities’
such as “Committee to Protect Vietnamese Workers” (2007), “Coalition to Abolish
Modern Slavery in Asia” (2010) or “Free Viet Labor Federation” (2014) to cover
their illegal activities including human – trafficking, financial aids fraud,
etc. and even being for political ambitions.
Among those groups,
Free Viet Labor Federation (FVLF) founded in 2014 by joining 3 others including
the
“Vietnam Independent Trade Union”, the “United Worker-Farmer Association of
Vietnam” and the “Viet Labor Movement”. FVLF first led by Tran Ngoc Thanh who
we all have known for many anti-Vietnam activities, and now it’s leader is Ngo
Thi Ngoc Ngoan, nickname is Ca Dao. We should be aware of this groups and its’
members like Do Thi Minh Hanh,
Le Thi Cong Nhan, Truong Minh Duc, Doan Viet Trung who were judged for
violating the country’s laws and causing chaos and instability.
They always slander the propaganda
against the State of Vietnam disguised as “humanitarian and charity
activities”, the calling for the interference of other governments and
non-governmental organizations in Vietnam’s affairs concerning labor and
trade union, and sophisticated frauds targeting Vietnamese laborers.
They have been
taking advantages of Western’s efforts on boosting civil-society’s role in
developing countries like Vietnam in recent years. Besides, those groups have
been certainly incited by the coming TPP agreement. Their common frame nowadays
is to compile lists of every Vietnamese worker’s accidents or strikes to make a
false image of Vietnam’s labor movement; distort state’s policies on worker’s
rights and define themselves as ‘the lead independent unions’ to call for
financial aids from NGOs and Western governments.
They have been also
conducting activities in relation to conspiracies to overthrow the Vietnamese government by inflaming labor revolutions -
the plot was once occurred in Poland in 1989. Many workers participating in strikes
unveiled that they were paid to demonstrate and conduct interviews with scripts
that exaggerating situations. The violence spreading-out from peaceful protests
against China drilling rig oil in mid-2014 was a lesson for not only
authorities but also workers who suffered from jobless and being unpaid due to
companies’ destruction.
Supposedly could Vietnam reach the TPP agreement with the U.S and 10 other
countries, Labor Chapter’s commitments fully implemented would bring
considerable benefits for Vietnamese labor and improve worker’s
living-standards in a long term. Yet the possibilities of these provisions
being used to cover illegally activities could not be excluded! All people,
especially workers, should be alert of these hostile groups and their filthy
plots./.
Popular Posts
-
Religion is a part of the spiritual life in society, this phenomenon of the superstructure has been strongly changed with economic - social... -
Vietnam has just done well for the second cycle of Universal Periodical Review (UPR) in Geneva, Switzerland. So, what’s the UPR? an... -
Thai people in Shutdown Bangkok protests Not until this crisis, we have realized the ne... -
Representatives from foreign countries congratulate Viet Nam on its election to the Human Rights Council for the first time on November ... -
A street flowers vendor in Hanoi Another new spring has come to Vietnam, bring... -
If nothing changes, there will be a preferential credit program with hundreds of thousands billion of capital for agriculture and r... -
Recently, several anti-governmental individuals have established series of illegal groups and organizations in the name of civil soci... -
Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a private, nonprofit international broadcasting agency of the United States government that broadcasts and...
All comments [ 10 ]
Workers want the minimum wage to be increased and the number of maximum annual overtime hours to remain unchanged.
25 years of transition from a planned economy to a market economy have definitely changed the pattern of industrial relations in Vietnam.
For TTP, Vietnam should review the law, policy and regulations to better protect migrant workers throughout the migration process and to enable their successful return and reintegration.
The Government of Viet Nam has a clear policy to promote labor migration as an employment generation and poverty reduction strategy.
A longer maternity leave is another important change in the Labor Code. Priority should be given to newborns, who need to be consistently breastfed in their first six months.
One of the key changes is the extension of the law's protection of new groups of workers. The new Labor Code recognizes "labor sub-leasing" as a new pattern of employment.
The Government, together with social partners, will need to identify the minimum living needs. It will require the employer representatives and trade union representatives to be able to speak on behalf of the various different groups that exist in their communities.
Workers in companies where a trade union does not exist may be able to seek the support of the upper-level trade unions on matters union requiring representation.
With these changes, workers who used to go on wild-cat strikes may be able to rely on the procedures provided by the laws to raise their concerns and demands, reducing the need for such strikes.
Workers' health and children's futures are more important, so we think the change is necessary for the whole society.
Your comments