The scientific seminar organized by Vietnam Textile and Garment Union is within the framework of the topic of the VGCL "strengthened the capacity to access information of workers in Vietnam's textile and garment industry" led by MA, Thanh Tam - Member of the Executive Committee of the VGCL, Chairman of Vietnam Textile and Garment Union.
Opening the workshop, MSc. Pham Thi Thanh Tam said that the textile and garment industry currently employs more than 2.5 million workers - mostly unskilled workers, mainly women, working in a concentrated industrial production environment. Through field research and large-scale surveys, the research team clearly identified a number of issues.
One of them is the internal communication institution that has developed, from newsletters, radio, union social networking sites to electronic interaction platforms. However, the form of expression is not attractive enough, lacking classification according to demographic characteristics (age, gender, region, level)...
The survey results showed: 77.6% of workers rate information access as very effective, but at the same time, 56.9% also believe that the form of communication still needs to be strongly improved to suit the young workforce, Gen Z, which is gradually becoming the main force in factories.
At the workshop, experts, scientists, and union officials participated in a direct and online manner in exchanging and discussing the theoretical, legal and policy framework; industry context, needs and information gaps; recommendations for implementing solutions...
Discussing access to information in labor relations - the current situation and recommendations for policy improvement, Ths Nguyen Hoang Mai, Trade Union University analyzed: In many textile and garment enterprises, the communication method is still mainly one-sided - that is, from the employer to the employee without an effective feedback mechanism. Current popular forms such as internal notice boards, paper documents, or transfer meetings are often widely used but have many limitations in practice.
MSc. Nguyen Dinh Thanh - co-founder of Elite PR School shared that in the digital transformation era, communication has become a "soft first step" but has a profound influence. For the trade union organization - especially at the grassroots level - communication is no longer only a tool to disseminate policies and guidelines, but is playing a strategic role in shaping awareness, maintaining trust and creating consensus among union members and workers.
Discussing some solutions to improve workers' access to information, Mr. Phan Nghiem Long - Department of Legal Policy and Labor Relations of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor stated the need to improve the representative capacity and proactive role of trade union organizations. In addition, it enhances the responsibility of employers in ensuring the implementation of workers' right to access information...
MSc. Pham Thi Thanh Tam: Although the grassroots trade union is given the right to supervision by law, it still operates under a popular concurrent model, lacking human resources, lacking communication and technology expertise - limiting the role of information communication. This practice shows: It is time to change the mindset - from propaganda to communication - from providing information to creating access and interaction capacity.
