Trade Union Law 2012: Many regulations are not suitable for the new situation

10 years of practice

Immediately after the Trade Union Law 2012 took effect from January 1, 2013, the Provincial People's Committee issued Official Dispatch No. 565/UBND-VX dated March 9, 2013 on directing agencies and units in the province to implement the Trade Union Law. This is also the time when Nghe An province has many changes and developments in the economic and social situation with many policies, mechanisms and policies to attract investors. Enterprises have invested in building dozens of factories in the province, creating jobs for tens of thousands of workers, facilitating the Trade Union to mobilize, gather and develop union members, and establish grassroots trade unions. Along with that, the activities ofNghe An Trade Unionalways receive the attention, leadership and direction of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, the Provincial Party Committee, the coordination and facilitation of the government, departments, branches and organizations from the province to the grassroots; union members and workers.

By 2022, Nghe An Trade Union had 542 grassroots trade unions in the enterprise sector with 80,572 union members. Photo: CSCC

After the Law on Trade Unions took effect, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Labor Federation issued Plan No. 26/KH-LĐLĐ dated September 7, 2012 to implement the work of propagating and disseminating the law to 29 Labor Federations of districts, cities and towns, and at the same time advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue documents implementing Decree 191/2013/ND-CP of the Government guiding on trade union finances. In addition, it developed regulations on coordination of work with the authorities and professionals at the same level, developed plans and signed annual coordination programs, 100% of grassroots trade unions developed regulations on coordination with the authorities and professionals at the same level right from the beginning of the term.

Over the past 10 years, the Provincial Federation of Labor has coordinated with the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, the Provincial Social Insurance to inspect the implementation of labor laws at hundreds of enterprises. The direct superior trade union has participated in 298 inspection teams at 2,396 units. Trade unions at all levels have coordinated with the Provincial Social Insurance to sue 23 enterprises for violating the law on social insurance, and 4 individuals have been protected by the Trade Union in court. The Provincial Federation of Labor has participated in promptly resolving 29 strikes, ensuring the harmony of interests between enterprises and employees. In addition, the Provincial Federation of Labor has directed trade unions at all levels to promote the negotiation and signing of collective labor agreements. Currently, the whole province has 453/532 enterprises with trade unions signing collective labor agreements, reaching a rate of 85.2%.

However, in addition to the advantages, trade union activities also face many difficulties and challenges. Comrade Nguyen Chi Cong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial Labor Federation said: "In reality, some basic rights and interests of workers and trade union rights are still slow to be implemented, the treatment and protection of trade union officials are not focused on, in many places the trade union's representation rights are formal, not yet promoting and demonstrating well the role of representing workers, the implementation of the inspection and supervision rights of the Trade Union is not much, the implementation of democracy regulations at the grassroots level is still formal...".

The Provincial Federation of Labor Party Delegation and the Standing Committee of the Provincial Agencies Party Committee signed a coordination regulation. Photo: Diep Thanh

There are many reasons for the current difficulties and limitations. Specifically, most businesses in the area are unstable, have few employees, and are mainly family businesses, so they do not have the conditions to establish a trade union. Awareness of workers and employers about labor laws and trade unions is still limited or does not create conditions for trade unions to operate. In some enterprises with trade unions, there are not yet strong enough sanctions to protect trade union officials when they stand up to protect the legitimate and legal rights of workers, there are no policies to encourage and attract trade union officials, and the authorities have not paid due attention to the work of inspection, supervision, and handling of violations of labor laws... In addition, the coordination between trade unions and the government and agencies has not been highly effective, the work of inspection and punishment for violations of labor laws and the Trade Union Law is still limited, and some trade unions at the higher levels directly at the grassroots level have not been closely monitoring and promptly resolving difficulties for grassroots trade unions...

Demand for innovation

Looking back at 10 years of implementing the Trade Union Law, Mr. Nguyen Chi Cong added: “To strongly innovate the content of trade union activities, it is necessary to focus on regulating the two main tasks of trade unions: developing the organization and representing and protecting the legitimate and legal rights and interests of workers and trade union members. Because currently the tasks of trade unions are too spread out.”

Sharing the same view, Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Huong - Head of the Department of Legal Policy - Labor Relations, Provincial Labor Federation shared: "The 2012 Trade Union Law was promulgated before the 2013 Constitution was passed, so there are provisions that are not completely compatible with the Constitution. In addition, in recent years, the National Assembly has promulgated many new laws with contents related to the rights and interests of employees and trade unions, including many new contents on labor relations and trade union rights at enterprises that are different from the provisions of the 2012 Trade Union Law. Therefore, the 2012 Trade Union Law needs to be amended and supplemented to ensure consistency and synchronization with the Constitution and the current legal system".

Disseminate legal policies to workers. Photo: CSCC

From practice, the Provincial Federation of Labor has made proposals and recommendations to supplement and amend the 2012 Trade Union Law. Specifically, because the subjects and scope of regulation of the 2012 Trade Union Law are still narrow compared to the rapid and diverse development of the labor force and the requirement to improve the efficiency of the Trade Union organization, it is necessary to expand the subjects and scope of regulation of the Law, especially the subjects of foreign workers. It is necessary to have regulations on ensuring conditions for trade union activities, increasing the working time for trade union presidents at enterprises with a large number of workers at appropriate levels, and at the same time, studying solutions to protect grassroots trade union officials, encouraging and motivating grassroots trade union officials to participate in activities and synchronizing with the provisions of the 2019 Labor Code to ensure the implementation of trade union rights as well as the mechanism to protect trade union officials.

Regarding the team of union officials, Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Huong added: “It is necessary to supplement regulations on full-time union officials at enterprises with 2,000 or more workers, with regulations on policies, salary regimes, and protection mechanisms for these officials. It is recommended to implement according to Decision 1617/QD-TLĐ dated December 31, 2014 of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor. Only then will the grassroots unions at enterprises be truly strong and competitive with organizations established by workers. In addition, it is necessary to issue separate policies for the team of union officials to attract quality human resources in union activities, including a mechanism to supplement the payroll.union officerto suit the characteristics of each locality. It is recommended that the allocation of full-time union staff be based on two criteria: the number of grassroots unions and the number of union members/staff.

Propagating and popularizing legal policies through dramatization. Photo: CSCC

The Provincial Federation of Labor also proposed that there should be regulations on ensuring the publicity and transparency of trade union finances and adding the regulation: "Agencies and enterprises are responsible for paying trade union fees monthly at the same time as paying social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance."

In addition, it is necessary to unify the names of the Vietnamese Trade Union organization system at all levels from the central to the grassroots level, specifically: Vietnam General Confederation of Labor - Provincial Trade Union - District Trade Union, Local Industry Trade Union - Grassroots Trade Union".