Society

Lesson 3: The power of “listening” in labor relations

Diep Thanh - Tran Van • DNUM_ACZAJZCACE 12:23

With their roles, functions and tasks, the union staff has promoted the power of listening in grasping the thoughts and aspirations of union members and workers. From there, there are orientations and campaigns to both ensure the rights of union members and workers and help harmonize the labor relationship between workers and employers.

Lesson 3:
The power of “listening”
in labor relations

With their roles, functions and tasks, the union staff has promoted the power of listening in grasping the thoughts and aspirations of union members and workers. From there, there are orientations and campaigns to both ensure the rights of union members and workers and help harmonize the labor relationship between workers and employers.

The impartial judges

The investment of many large projects and the growth of enterprises in Nghe An province in recent times is a positive sign for economic development. However, in addition to the positive economic indicators, there are complex factors recorded in labor relations in recent years. According to statistics, from 2021 to April 2024, in Nghe An province, there were 17 collective work stoppages and illegal strikes, of which in the first 9 months of 2024 alone, there were 6 collective work stoppages of workers at enterprises in the province. Among them, there were collective work stoppages of a very complicated nature, with a large number of participants and a long time to resolve. Although it took place quite peacefully, this situation has led to many bad consequences for enterprises, workers and localities.

Among the enterprises that have experienced collective work stoppages, Viet Glory Company Limited (Dien Truong Commune, Dien Chau District) is considered a "hot spot" with 3 strikes in 3 consecutive years. In the most recent strike, on October 2, 2023, thousands of workers of Viet Glory Company Limited gathered at the parking lot and did not work the afternoon shift. When the incident occurred, the Dien Chau District Labor Federation and the district's functional agencies were present, grasped the concerns, collected 8 groups of petitions from workers and forwarded them to the company's leaders. Of which, the two main contents are increasing the basic salary and reviewing the product contract level. The rest are contents related to other employee benefits such as toxic regime, maternity, fines for diligence, meeting time, management attitude, timekeeping mechanism, etc.

“In a collective work stoppage, thousands of workers will have thousands of opinions. Union officials will be the ones who directly work with the workers, have the role of listening, synthesizing those opinions into specific groups, considering the matter to negotiate harmonious interests. Most importantly, with their knowledge of labor law, union officials must know which opinions are right and reasonable, which opinions are wrong and unreasonable. This is when union officials demonstrate their ingenuity in mass mobilization work with both workers and business owners,” emphasized Mr. Nguyen Chi Cong, Vice Chairman of the Provincial Labor Federation.

In the case of Viet Glory Company Limited, in response to the workers' request for a salary increase, the company's leaders said that the current difficult business and production situation did not allow the company to make further adjustments, and hoped that the staff would sympathize and share. In that situation, union officials at all levels analyzed for union members and workers to understand that the company had paid workers a basic salary of VND 4,130,000/month, higher than the minimum regional salary, so the workers' request was unfounded. At the same time, with their legal knowledge and arguments, union officials convinced the company's leaders to recalculate the way to apply output, attendance fees, and raise welfare policies, and review the attitude of management... After 5 tense days, with the skillful and reasonable intervention of the union organization, more than 5,000 workers of Viet Glory Company Limited agreed to return to work.

BSE Electronics Company Limited (Nam Cam) is also a company that has repeatedly experienced collective work stoppages. “The most recent time was at the end of April 2024, the reason for the work stoppage was because the company pushed some older workers to do cleaning work, causing discontent among the workers. Previously, this company had applied salary deductions when workers took leave due to the death of their parents... In this situation, the company did not understand the basic ethics, traditions, and culture of the Vietnamese people. Therefore, we had to both mobilize and reassure the workers and explain the problem to the company. Most businesses have the support of a team of lawyers, so in addition to having a firm grasp of the law, they also have to be resolute when necessary and analyze with reason and compassion,” said Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Huong, Chairwoman of the Southeast Economic Zone Trade Union.

Regarding this content, Nghe An Trade Union is interested in and focuses on directing the organization of 3 conferences to find solutions to prevent and resolve strikes in the area, advising on the development of a project "Some solutions to prevent and limit strikes that do not follow legal procedures in Nghe An province in the period of 2022 - 2030". During the process of developing the content, trade union officials of the Provincial Federation of Labor organized working seminars and learned from the experiences of localities with a large number of workers such as Binh Duong, Can Tho, Ho Chi Minh City...

Speaking during the recent working visit of the Provincial Federation of Labor to the Company, Mr. Yao Xiao Qian - General Director of VietGlory Limited Liability Company happily confided: "We are truly grateful for the companionship and support of Nghe An Trade Union over the years. Without you, the company would not be what it is today". With 2 factories and more than 8,300 employees, the production and labor relations at this enterprise are increasingly improving. The biggest proof of this is probably the happy atmosphere of workers when they receive salary increases, increased allowances and are treated with respect.

In mass mobilization, Uncle Ho reminded, we must “Go together to explain to the people to understand”. In the trade union, union officials must work together to explain to the workers and employers to understand. When the workers and employers have understood, union officials must continue to “go close”, accompany and guide.

Listen in many ways

“Listening to and understanding the thoughts and aspirations of employees” is considered the optimal measure to prevent and resolve labor relations conflicts.

In the development of Nghe An Trade Union, perhaps never before have forums for workers been organized as much as in recent years. Since Resolution 02 of the Politburo on innovation of trade union organization in the new situation was issued, hundreds of forums for union members and workers have been organized at all levels, thousands of workers' opinions have been recorded and reflected.

The highlight of this series of forums is probably the first dialogue conference between the Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee and workers and laborers taking place in mid-2022. Attending this event, Comrade Ngo Duy Hieu - Vice President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor affirmed: "This can be considered a model dialogue conference with a methodical, democratic program, diverse and rich recommendations from workers, all of which are very typical issues, of interest to workers. The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the conference in an interesting way, creating a close, sincere, respectful and understanding atmosphere". To organize this event, Nghe An Trade Unions at all levels have planned for 2 years, implementing many survey activities, collecting opinions, recommendations and proposals from workers in all districts, sectors, and all grassroots trade unions through many channels and in many forms.

Since then, with the aim of grasping the aspirations of workers, Nghe An trade unions at all levels have built many other forum models. Typically, the Forum "Enterprises for workers - Workers for enterprises", the program "Thank workers", policy dialogue with authorities, conferences to meet voters who are workers... From these forums, the thoughts, aspirations and recommendations of workers have "painted" a panoramic picture of the lives of workers with urgent needs for housing, kindergartens for workers' children, unsecured policies, difficulties in the process of policy implementation... In addition, many workers have lost their jobs and had their income reduced while market prices have increased; the situation of social insurance arrears continues; the issue of employment, wages and working hours in some places has not been implemented in accordance with regulations...

“With the nature of shift work, gathering a large group of workers to grasp their thoughts and aspirations, answer questions, and have direct dialogues… is very difficult. To overcome this limitation, union officials at all levels have been flexible and creative in accessing information, for example, going to boarding houses to distribute survey forms, visiting factories, and posting QR codes to record online opinions… In addition to workers, we can also grasp the thoughts and aspirations of business owners and grassroots union officials. From this information, unions at all levels have made recommendations to functional agencies and local authorities to make reasonable changes and adjustments, helping to improve workers’ lives, ensure their rights, and enable them to work with peace of mind” – Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Nhi, Vice President of the Provincial Federation of Labor shared.

Also with the purpose of listening to the thoughts and aspirations and bringing benefits to workers, at the grassroots level, the trade union executive committee has been trained, guided and directed to conduct dialogues with business owners on a regular basis, and the coordination work to implement the grassroots democracy regulations continues to have many changes. The number and quality of conferences of civil servants and dialogue conferences at the workplace have been improved. Every year, 100% of units organize conferences of civil servants; The rate of dialogue conferences and conferences of workers at enterprises reaches from 50% to 76%.

From the Project "Strengthening the role of Nghe An trade unions at all levels in improving the quality and quantity of collective labor agreements in enterprises in the period of 2022-2028" of the Provincial Labor Federation, currently the whole province has 468/543 enterprises with collective labor agreements, the content of the agreements has enhanced the rights of workers more than the provisions of the law.

It can be affirmed that the need to express one's thoughts and aspirations is one of the essential needs of union members and workers. From worker forums, difficulties and shortcomings have the opportunity to be resolved, policies and regulations have the opportunity to be improved, conflicts in labor relations are prevented and workers and laborers themselves once again affirm their position.