Take advantage of communication channels
The Hanoi Industrial and Export Processing Zones Trade Union (IPZ-CXH) is directly managing 348 grassroots trade unions (UCs) with 142,167 union members/151,64 employees. In order to improve the quantity and quality of collective labor agreements (CLAs), the IPZ-CXH trade union has developed and issued documents directing, implementing, urging, and guiding grassroots unions to negotiate and sign CLAs, and at the same time assigning tasks to members of the steering committee of the program "Improving the quality of representation work, caring for and protecting the legitimate and legal rights and interests of union members and employees; promoting dialogue, negotiation, and signing of CLAs for the period 2023 - 2028".
Discussing how to promote and monitor the implementation of the Collective Labor Agreement, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thang said that the Trade Union of Industrial Parks and Industrial Zones regularly urges, visits each Industrial Park, checks each unit, and supports each Executive Committee of the Trade Union to promptly grasp the deadline situation as well as monitor the implementation of the content of the Collective Labor Agreement. Thereby, at units where the Collective Labor Agreement is about to expire or has expired, the Executive Committee of the Trade Union organizes dialogues, negotiations, and bargaining with employers to add more terms and conditions that are beneficial to the employees.
In addition to the above-mentioned close monitoring, the Trade Unions of Industrial Parks and Industrial Zones regularly urge the negotiation and signing of the Collective Labor Agreement through communication channels such as direct phone calls, urging through the Zalo page of each Industrial Park, and the Zalo page of the Trade Union Chairmen. Information about the Labor Conference; the negotiation and signing process of the Collective Labor Agreement of the units that have been organized are posted on the group Zalo page to both create a spreading effect and share experiences between units, between Industrial Parks, etc.
The Trade Union of Industrial Parks and Industrial Parks in Hanoi has drafted a document guiding grassroots trade unions in organizing annual Conferences of civil servants and public employees and annual Conferences of employees. Through the Conferences, grassroots trade unions will synthesize employees' opinions as a basis for proposing adjustments and additions to more favorable terms and conditions. In the first 8 months of 2024, the Trade Union of Industrial Parks and Industrial Parks in Hanoi has guided and received 35 copies of the Collective Labor Agreement, of which 4 were newly signed, 31 were re-signed and supplemented.
Get signatures of all employees before signing the Collective Labor Agreement.
Experience from the Executive Committee of the Trade Union of EnKei Vietnam Co., Ltd., under the Trade Union of Industrial Parks and Industrial Zones in Hanoi, on implementing the negotiation and signing of the Collective Labor Agreement at the unit, shows the importance of the steps involved. The Executive Committee of the Company's Trade Union has developed a systematic process for signing the Collective Labor Agreement. The contents of the Collective Labor Agreement are thoroughly discussed in the Executive Committee of the Trade Union before being notified and discussed with the business owner. Before organizing the Labor Conference, the Executive Committee of the Trade Union collects opinions and recommendations from all employees and notifies the employees about the contents of the Collective Labor Agreement so that they can understand it, and at the same time collects signatures from all employees before officially signing with the company's board of directors...
However, the trade unions still face common difficulties in this work. One of the common situations is that due to holding multiple positions, it is difficult to arrange time to prepare, schedule meetings with employers, and get employees' opinions, often having to work overtime.
The survey on the guidance for negotiating, signing and implementing the 2024 Collective Labor Agreement by the Hanoi Labor Federation also shows that the biggest difficulty at present is that the Labor Code does not have a provision requiring enterprises to sign a Collective Labor Agreement, and the signing of a Collective Labor Agreement is based on the voluntary will of both parties. In addition, the implementation of policies in FDI enterprises is often higher than the prescribed level, higher than the regional minimum wage... so negotiating and bargaining to include in the Collective Labor Agreement the contents that can be graded as A, B is difficult.
