On the morning of November 27, with the majority of delegates in favor, the National Assembly passed the Trade Union Law (amended).
This revised Trade Union Law has many new points. And one of the notable contents, which has received the attention of many union members and workers nationwide, is the addition of the Trade Union's right to proactively monitor and provide social criticism.
In fact, the 2012 Trade Union Law also stipulates the supervisory function of trade unions. However, the law only stipulates that trade unions are allowed to participate in inspecting, examining, and supervising the activities of agencies, organizations, and enterprises.
That is, the trade union only participates as a “guest” and cannot organize monitoring activities on its own when necessary. Therefore, the regulation on the right to proactively monitor and provide social criticism of the trade union in the new law will help trade unions at all levels to be more proactive and convenient in carrying out monitoring activities to detect violations early at the employer. At the same time, it will better and more effectively perform the role of a representative organization, protect the rights of workers, reduce the risk of labor disputes, collective work stoppages, strikes, etc.
This regulation demonstrates unity and is consistent with the Party's policies and the Vietnamese legal system; meets practical requirements, and creates favorable conditions for trade unions to approach non-state enterprises.
Of course, the supervisory power of trade unions as well as that of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and other socio-political organizations is “people's supervision” – a social activity, not a state power supervision like that of the National Assembly or People's Councils at all levels.
But this “people's supervision” is a very important and necessary step, once again affirming the real role of the union in representing the voice of union members and workers in the workplace.
According to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, during the 2018-2023 term, trade unions nationwide conducted more than 166,000 monitoring sessions. From these monitoring sessions, more than 27,000 union members and workers were resolved regarding policies and regimes with a total compensation and support amount of more than 113 billion VND.
These figures say a lot about the role and effectiveness of trade unions in protecting workers' rights when performing their supervisory functions.
And in the future, when the Trade Union Law (amended) comes into effect, the role of representative organizations, protecting workers' rights, minimizing the risk of labor disputes, collective work stoppages, strikes, etc. will certainly be implemented more effectively by Trade Unions at all levels!
