On the afternoon of June 3, under the chairmanship of Mr. Ngo Duy Hieu - Vice President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Ha - Member of the Presidium of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, Deputy Head of the Labor Relations Department of the General Confederation, delegates at Workshop Center No. 1 discussed the content of Trade Unions representing, caring for and protecting the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of union members and workers.
Speaking here, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Do - Director of the Legal Consulting Center of the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Federation - said that besides the great opportunities from the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the process of deep international integration, the lives and jobs of workers and laborers are facing many pressures and challenges. These are income differentiation; difficulties in housing, health care, and social security; are potential risks from social evils and information chaos in cyberspace due to hostile forces taking advantage of sabotage. These factors directly threaten the stability of labor relations. In the period 2023 - 2025, 78 collective labor disputes were recorded in the City, affecting more than 8,200 workers.
The breakthrough highlight of Ho Chi Minh City is that the Trade Union proactively initiates lawsuits to protect the legitimate rights of workers.
To maintain the solid trust of workers, the City Trade Union organization has proactively changed its thinking: not stopping at the passive mediation role, but decisively becoming a "legal shield" to protect workers from an early and distant time.
The clearest evidence is that in the past time, implementing the provisions of law and receiving authorization from the collective of workers, the City Trade Union levels have proactively carried out legal procedures, suing a series of businesses that intentionally delay, violate obligations, and infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of workers.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Do informed that, through the Legal Consulting Center and Trade Unions at all levels, they have represented and filed lawsuits under authorization for collectives, union members and workers, directly prepared lawsuit dossiers, participated in litigation and debate to protect the legitimate rights of more than 2,500 workers at enterprises that evade and owe social insurance and prolonged salary arrears. Through effective judgments and the process of dialogue in court, the Trade Union has forced business owners to remedy, pay salaries, and deduct and repay social insurance arrears and other compensation amounts, with a total amount of up to more than 49 billion VND.
These results not only restore social security rights for thousands of worker families but also create strong deterrence, respect for the law, contributing to effectively preventing spontaneous collective work stoppages.
To promote the spirit of innovation and breakthrough of the Vietnam Trade Union Congress and realize the goal of building sustainable labor relations, the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Federation proposed 5 key groups of solutions.
One of them is to diversify the model of union member gathering; promote core forces associated with improving sustainable welfare. Promote the application of digital technology in union member development, determined to minimize "white spots" organized in non-state sector enterprises. Promote the effectiveness of the role of self-management nuclei, core worker groups in accommodation areas to promptly grasp thoughts and prevent spontaneous strikes from the root. Promote the "Union member welfare program", develop long-term trade union institutions on housing, health care, education - considering good social security care as the most sustainable dispute prevention solution...
In addition, elevate dialogue, collective bargaining and build in-depth support tools for grassroots levels. Make dialogue and collective bargaining proactive dispute prevention tools.
Promote periodic dialogue, information transparency, focusing on labor-intensive industries. Expand collective bargaining by industry and by region to build collective labor agreements with many participating businesses to establish a common level of wages and benefits.
Effectively deploy the "City Collective Labor Agreement Library" and the negotiation handbook to provide close technical support to grassroots trade unions.
