Many terms are beneficial to union members
Recently, the Da Nang City Labor Federation organized a signing ceremony for a collective labor agreement (CLA) of 9 non-public kindergartens in Lien Chieu district. Accordingly, the schools committed to building a salary scale and table to ensure at least 10 salary levels and a gap between two adjacent salary levels of at least 3 to 5%. The time to consider raising the salary level for employees is from 1 year (full 12 months) to 2 years (24 months) of work. Regarding salary increase, the organization evaluates the performance of employees and considers raising the salary level once or twice a year for employees who have worked for 12 months or 24 months or more.
The salary of employees during the probationary period is equal to 90% of the salary of that job. During the probationary period, employees are entitled to at least 1 allowance such as gasoline, telephone, diligence, etc. Employees are entitled to a New Year's bonus and a Lunar New Year bonus of at least 1.5 million VND/person. The employer creates conditions in terms of time for employees who need to study and improve their professional qualifications, up to 16 hours/month, ensuring 14 benefits for employees including: Mid-shift meal allowance; birthday gifts; holiday allowance; sightseeing, vacation, entertainment activities; gifts for weddings and childbirth; sickness and funeral allowance; support for sudden difficulties, etc.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh, Principal of Vanh Khuyen Private Kindergarten (Hoa Khanh Bac Ward, Lien Chieu District) said that the school currently has 18 staff members, teachers and employees.
“We have been implementing and maintaining welfare policies for employees regularly. However, the collective labor agreement signed this time has more specific content. Previously, implementing welfare policies and policies for employees was often based on sentiment, but now the regulations are more specific in terms of spending levels, and we just follow them. How can we make them go up or stay at the same level and not down,” said Ms. Linh.
Timely and necessary
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lich, Head of the Department of Education and Training of Lien Chieu district, commented that this version of the Collective Labor Agreement is very timely and necessary, creating a common voice between employees and employers, helping both parties better understand their rights and obligations when participating in a specific organization.
"We will accompany you through the difficulties and hope that in the future there will be more collective labor agreements like this with the remaining private preschools," a representative of the Department of Education and Training of Lien Chieu district affirmed.
According to Mr. Truong Cong Hieu, Chairman of the Lien Chieu District Labor Federation, from the beginning of the year, the District Labor Federation has developed a plan, making the signing of the Collective Labor Agreement one of two particularly important tasks. After that, the Union has selected units with similar models to pilot.
At the conference to implement the policy and collect opinions on the first draft, the parties pointed out the limitations of the Collective Labor Agreement. From there, they continued to develop the second draft and organized a negotiation conference with an objective spirit, finding common ground and "balancing the interests" between employees and employers in each clause.
“In the coming time, the District Labor Federation will coordinate with the Department of Education and Training to organize dialogues and provide legal advice to school owners as well as union officials at private kindergartens, introduce the content of the agreement to schools that have not yet participated to encourage voluntary participation. With experience from the pilot implementation, the District Labor Federation will continue to research and build a collective labor agreement for independent kindergartens in the coming time,” Mr. Hieu informed.
Mr. Le Van Dai, Vice President of the Da Nang City Labor Federation, affirmed that the signed terms will create a common ground on benefits in terms of salary, employment, working hours, and rest hours in units with the same profession.
“In order to provide benefits for union members, school owners and school boards have reduced a portion of their profits to take care of their union members. We thank the school owners for sharing with the workers, and thank the relevant Executive Committee of the Trade Union for collaborating with the City Labor Federation to have this Collective Labor Agreement,” said Mr. Dai.
