The role of the trade union at the grassroots level
Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Pham Quang Thanh - Member of the Presidium of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, Chairman of the Hanoi City Confederation of Labor expressed his desire to correctly identify the advantages, difficulties, strengths and weaknesses of the trade union organization; the role, abilities and abilities of each trade union level... in dialogue and collective bargaining to find effective solutions.
The delegates frankly assessed that the current status of dialogue, collective bargaining and the signing of the Collective Labor Agreement is still formal and of low quality. The negotiation content did not focus on core issues such as salary scales, salary tables, salaries, working hours, rest hours and benefits. Collective bargaining with the participation of many businesses, especially at the industry level, has not received due attention.
In addition, some grassroots trade unions have not fully implemented the process of collecting opinions from workers before and during the agreement making process; some collective labor agreements have expired but have not been extended or re-signed according to regulations.
The inspection and supervision of the implementation of the Collective Labor Agreement at enterprises has been of interest to the Union, but the results achieved are not high. One of the reasons is that the provisions of the law on collective bargaining and collective labor agreements still have some shortcomings, especially the regulations on the role of trade unions at the grassroots level; sanctions are still lacking and not strong enough...
Discussing the role of grassroots trade unions, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thang - Executive Committee member of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, Chairman of the Hanoi Industrial and Export Processing Zones Trade Union (IP&EC) said that the number of collective labor agreements in grassroots trade unions under the Hanoi IP&EC Trade Union has salary content of only about 42%, mainly focusing on negotiating minimum wages, probationary wages, and salary increases.
There are many reasons, including the fact that the majority of grassroots trade union officials only understand the principles of salary calculation, but do not grasp the financial situation of enterprises, do not understand in detail and specifically how to calculate salaries, product prices, and labor norms, so negotiating salaries is ineffective.
Also from this reality, the Trade Union of Hanoi Industrial Parks and Export Processing Zones has instructed the Trade Union, shared the experiences of units that have signed collective labor agreements in general and units that have signed collective labor agreements with more favorable terms on wages, bonuses, working hours, rest hours... to replicate typical cases via Zalo, Facebook.
Developing a process for organizing dialogues
Currently, Long Bien district has 235/247 enterprises signing collective labor agreements (reaching 95.14%). In 2024, 166 were signed, including 97 re-signed and 69 newly signed. Most agreements are more beneficial to employees, focusing on wages, benefits, working hours, rest, subsidies and activities to take care of their lives.
According to Mr. Nguyen Truong Giang - Chairman of the Long Bien District Labor Federation, to improve the effectiveness of negotiation, negotiation and signing of the Collective Labor Agreement, it is necessary to enhance the role and responsibility of the District Labor Federation cadres in urging and guiding negotiations, negotiations, signing of collective labor agreements associated with monthly emulation assessments and annual cadre classification. In particular, developing a concise and easy-to-understand process for organizing dialogues, negotiations, negotiations and signing of collective labor agreements, along with full forms; supporting funding for good quality collective labor agreements (types A, B).
As for the Cau Giay District Labor Federation, Ms. Nguyen Thu Ha - Chairman of the District Labor Federation - gave her experience from the beginning of the year to proactively review the list of units that have not yet developed a collective labor agreement, units that are about to expire a collective labor agreement need to re-sign. After that, the District Labor Federation issued an official dispatch urging each unit in the review list...
The negotiation and signing of collective labor agreements at non-state enterprises in Hanoi has been focused on, with 81.75% of enterprises with signed grassroots unions, of which 47.15% are of A and B quality, higher than the national average. In 2024, the Capital Trade Union at all levels signed new, amended and supplemented 1,725 collective labor agreements (reaching 287.5%), including 715 new signings, exceeding the target of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor by 119%.
