The Ministry of Justice is appraising 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, developed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The Son La Department of Home Affairs proposed amendments, stipulating the roadmap for normal working hours for private sector workers to be reduced to 40 - 44 hours/week, in line with the public sector. To reduce working hours effectively, this department believes that it is necessary to combine solutions to improve labor productivity to achieve the double-digit growth target.
The Son La Department of Home Affairs also proposed to supplement regulations on employers' responsibilities regarding shift meals, mental health care, support for stress reduction, and prevention of exhaustion at the workplace in high-pressure environments...
In addition, this agency also proposed flexible working policies, combining direct and online, suitable to the context of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
Mr. Bui Sy Loi - former Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for Social Affairs (now the National Assembly's Committee for Culture and Society), said he supports the above proposal.
According to Mr. Loi, reducing working hours to 40 hours/week not only helps workers have more time to rest and take care of their families, but also has conditions to shop, play, travel, and entertain. When people have more time and consumption needs, cash flow can return to the market, contributing to stimulating domestic consumption, promoting services, tourism, retail and creating more jobs.
This is not'do less', but towards working more efficiently, improving productivity and improving the quality of life," Mr. Loi said.
According to him, reducing working hours also creates more motivation for businesses to improve science and technology and improve labor productivity.
A country cannot compete for a long time with long working hours and cheap labor. The roadmap to reduce working weeks to 40 hours is a positive pressure for businesses to innovate technology, improve productivity, help workers live better and the economy develop quickly and sustainably," Mr. Loi said.
However, Mr. Bui Sy Loi said that Vietnam's labor productivity is still low, while workers have to work overtime a lot to improve their income. Therefore, working hours reduction needs to be calculated and implemented according to a specific roadmap, ensuring that it does not affect workers' incomes, while improving the productivity and operational efficiency of enterprises.
The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor recently also proposed amending regulations on normal working hours in the direction of building a roadmap to reduce to 40-44 hours/week, instead of the current level of 48 hours/week.
Mr. Le Dinh Quang - former Deputy Head of the Policy and Law Department of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, said that this is a proposal suitable for the current development context.
According to Mr. Quang, Vietnam's working hours of 48 hours/week are still high, while the general trend in the world is to reduce working hours to improve the quality of life of workers.
He believes that the study of reducing working hours is also aimed at ensuring fairness between sectors. Currently, the administrative and public service sectors have implemented a 40-hour/week working regime for many years, while most workers in the production and business sectors still work 48 hours/week.
According to the expert, with the strong development of science and technology, automation and modern management methods, the conditions for reducing working hours are now ripe. Therefore, it is necessary to soon consider amending the Labor Code to implement it.
