On April 28, on the sidelines of the 140th anniversary of International Labor Day (May 1, 1886 - May 1, 2026); commending outstanding and typical grassroots trade union presidents in collective dialogue and negotiation work in 2026 organized by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, Lao Dong Newspaper reporters exchanged with Mr. Le An Hai - Member of the Presidium of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, Chairman of the Vietnam Trade and Industry Trade Union about the role of grassroots trade unions in building labor relations in the past time and the requirement to improve the capacity of trade union officials in the new period.
How do you assess the contributions of grassroots trade unions under the Trade Union of Industry and Trade in forming harmonious labor relations at enterprises under the Industry and Trade sector in the past time?
Chairman of the Vietnam Trade Union of Industry and Trade Le An Hai:
The Vietnam Industry and Trade Union is a very special organization, a link between the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Industry and Trade sector in general.
Grassroots Trade Unions under the Vietnam Trade Union of Industry and Trade have well implemented the contents and tasks set out by the Industry and Trade sector, especially in the current context, when our country enters a new era, an era of national rise. In which, the Industry and Trade sector is assigned a very large task and responsibility by the Party and State, especially participating in the goal of double-digit economic growth.
Overall, grassroots trade unions in the Industry and Trade sector have made positive contributions to maintaining stable and harmonious labor relations at enterprises.
Many units have maintained the mechanism of periodic dialogue, thereby promptly removing obstacles between employees and employers.
Notably, some collective labor agreements have contents higher than the provisions of law, especially regarding salaries, bonuses and benefits such as meals, health check-ups, and support for workers in difficult circumstances. The awareness of compliance with labor laws in enterprises is generally maintained at a stable level.
However, there are still some limitations. In which, the content of many agreements is still "safe", not really creating outstanding benefits for workers. The negotiation process still lacks data bases such as productivity, profit or labor market fluctuations, leading to low persuasiveness.
In addition, the negotiation skills of Trade Union officials are not uniform; workers have not been deeply involved in the process of building the agreement, so the representativeness is not clear. In particular, the mechanism for supervision and implementation after signing is still a weak link, affecting the actual effectiveness of the agreement.
In the new stage, according to you, what capacity do Trade Union officials need to improve to meet task requirements?
Chairman of the Vietnam Trade Union of Industry and Trade Le An Hai:
First of all, Trade Union officials need to improve their negotiation and bargaining capacity in a substantive direction. Not only stopping at proposing, but also knowing how to argue and build plans to harmonize interests, based on the production and business efficiency of enterprises.
Along with that is the ability to analyze data. Trade union officials need to understand and use information such as financial statements, labor productivity, labor costs... to make reasonable, grounded and persuasive requests.
Legal capacity is also an important requirement. Mastering the 2019 Labor Code and related regulations will help Trade Union officials better protect the rights of workers and ensure compliance with legal regulations.
In addition, it is necessary to strengthen the capacity to represent and connect workers through surveys, listening to and synthesizing multi-dimensional opinions, avoiding subjective imposition. In particular, trade union officials must have a mindset of harmonizing interests, towards stabilizing long-term labor relations, contributing to the sustainable development of enterprises.
Can you share key solutions to improve the quality of dialogue and collective negotiation in the coming time?
Chairman of the Vietnam Trade Union of Industry and Trade Le An Hai:
The first solution is to improve the quality of preparation work. Trade unions need to survey the needs of workers by group, collect data on market wages, production and business efficiency, minimum living standards; and at the same time develop flexible negotiation scenarios.
Second, it is necessary to focus on improving the quality of the content of collective labor agreements in the direction of having more clauses higher than the law, such as a salary mechanism associated with productivity, transparent bonuses, practical welfare policies, flexible working hours, as well as regulations to protect workers in the context of restructuring and digital transformation.
Third is to innovate the negotiation method. Periodic dialogues must be substantive, with specific monitoring and evaluation; negotiations can be applied by group of issues and strengthened with the support of superior trade unions or experts when necessary.
Along with that, it is necessary to strengthen supervision and implementation after signing through publicizing the agreement so that workers know and participate in supervision, and periodically evaluate to make timely adjustments.
Another important solution is to replicate good models in the industry, build sets of collective labor agreement templates with progressive clauses for units to refer to and apply.
Thank you very much, sir!
