The Department of Home Affairs of Son La province sent comments on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Labor Code, the Law on Archives, the Law on Gender Equality and the Law on Red Cross Activities, drafted by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The Son La Provincial Department of Home Affairs proposed considering adding 2 holidays on the occasion of National Day, from September 2nd to September 5th. According to this agency, the proposal aims to create opportunities for workers to take their children to school on the opening day; and at the same time combine solutions to improve labor productivity to achieve the goal of double-digit growth.
The Department also proposed to supplement regulations on enterprises having the obligation to arrange time for employees to take leave from work and receive salaries to study the policies and laws of the Party and the State, which may be associated with Vietnam Law Day on November 9 every year.
The Department of Home Affairs of Son La province also proposed to supplement regulations on employers' responsibilities regarding shift meals; mental health care, support for stress reduction and fatigue prevention at the workplace for workers in high-pressure environments.
Along with that is a flexible working policy (online combined with direct) suitable for digital transformation and the context of local mergers; fundamental rights of workers and responsibilities of businesses suitable for the context of artificial intelligence (AI) explosion. Promulgating a national strategy on developing the labor force in the AI era.
Responding to the above content, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that it did not accept the above comments. The reason is that it is not consistent with the purpose, requirements, and amended and supplemented contents of the draft, which are arranging, organizing the apparatus, 3-level political system, decentralization, delegation of power, decentralization of authority, reducing and simplifying administrative procedures, and abolishing conditional business lines.
The draft law is expected to be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and approval at the upcoming session.
According to Mr. Pham Minh Huan, former Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (now the Ministry of Home Affairs), situations such as changing holidays, urgently announcing holiday times cause many workers and businesses to encounter difficulties and be passive in arranging working hours and plans. Therefore, Mr. Huan suggested that the announcement of holiday schedules should be calculated and announced early by functional agencies.
In fact, there are places where holidays can be exchanged, but there are places where they cannot be exchanged when the time for functional agencies to ask for opinions and decisions is too close to the holiday. He also agreed that having regulations and general principles on the time to notify holidays will avoid having to ask for opinions from ministries and sectors every year.
