Enhancing the role of legal advice for employees

Consulting needs and difficulties

Nghe An currently has 13,500 enterprises operating in production and business with more than 230,000 workers in 12 industrial parks, of which 6 industrial parks have been approved by the Prime Minister, creating many jobs for workers and laborers. With the large number of enterprises and laborers today, the need for legal advice, research and assistance is increasing.

Direct legal advice for workers. Photo: CSCC

Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Huong - Head of the Legal Policy Department said: From 2015 to June 2022, the Provincial Federation of Labor provided legal advice to 1,322 people, of which 664 people were directly consulted, 541 people were indirectly consulted, 44 people were mobile consulted, and 77 documents were consulted. In the first 6 months of 2022 alone, the Provincial Federation of Labor provided legal advice 102 times. The fact that workers seek legal advice and assistance from trade unions on the one hand stems from the needs and aspirations of workers, and on the other hand, it demonstrates the workers' trust in the organization.union organizationincreasingly high.

In addition to the achieved results, legal consultancy work still has certain difficulties such as: Only stopping at the level of the trade union directly at the grassroots level assigning staff to concurrently be in charge of legal consultancy; funding for legal consultancy activities is limited; the number of full-time trade union staff trained in law is still low, affecting the quality of consultancy work; training, fostering, improving the qualifications and skills of staff doing legal consultancy work has not received due attention...

Propagating Resolutions and policies through dramatization. Photo: CSCC

In addition, the staff doing legal consultancy work at the trade union at the level directly above the grassroots level do not have legal expertise, do not have much experience, have not been properly trained, and are mainly part-time. The model of the Legal Consultation Center of the provincial trade union still faces difficulties in funding and human resources to operate.

Faced with that reality, the Provincial Federation of Labor has proposed to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor to pay attention to building preferential policies for the team of legal consultants and legal aid workers of trade unions at all levels, thereby attracting and improving the quality of legal consultancy work towards professionalism and efficiency.

Promoting the role of legal consultancy

As an area with a large number of workers and complicated labor relations, in order to stabilize labor relations, trade unions at all levels in the province have increased legal consulting work, contributing to raising awareness of law compliance among union members and workers.

Thanh Chuong District Labor Federation provides direct legal advice to workers at the workshop. Photo: CSCC

From 2015 to 2017, the Legal Consulting Center, the Provincial Labor Federation was established with 1 full-time legal consultant, 1 part-time legal consultant, and 9 legal consulting collaborators. From 2018 to 2020, the Legal Consulting Center was dissolved, returning to the model of the Legal Consulting Office under the Legal Policy - Labor Relations Department with 1 full-time legal consultant, 1 part-time legal consultant. From 2021 to present, the office maintains 1 full-time legal consultant, 2 part-time legal consultants.

In addition, each district Labor Federation and industry union assigns one officer in charge of legal consultancy work in conjunction with reporters and propagandists. Every year, the Provincial Labor Federation develops a plan for legal dissemination, education and dissemination with increasingly innovative and attractive forms of legal consultancy activities. From 2015 to 2022, the Provincial Labor Federation organized nearly 65 mobile legal dissemination and propaganda sessions at enterprises for nearly 7,000 union members andworker. Trade unions at all levels actively coordinated with functional sectors to organize more than 200 propaganda, dissemination and legal education sessions, attracting nearly 15,000 workers, civil servants and laborers, participating with state agencies in implementing policies and laws related to the legitimate rights and interests of union members and laborers...

Ignorance of the law is the cause of many strikes. Photo: CSCC

The Provincial Federation of Labor has also organized 8 competitions with more than 1,500 participants in the form of dramatization, organizing games, exchanges combined with propaganda of laws on labor, occupational safety and hygiene, Trade Union Law, Social Insurance Law, Law on Drug Prevention and Control, HIV/AIDS... 14 communication sessions with 2,290 workers, civil servants and laborers participating were organized, propagating laws on female labor policies and regimes, Law on Gender Equality, Population - Family Planning, through the form of democratic flower picking, the form of organizing competition teams to provide knowledge, integrating talent competitions with skits. Organized 31 training courses for 3,151 trade union officials, workers and laborers on the Labor Code, Social Insurance Law, Civil Servants Law, Public Employees Law...

In addition to direct, online, written, telephone, 1080 hotline, text messages via network operators, legal advice kiosks, via the Trade Union TV page, Nghe An Labor Newspaper, Nghe An Newspaper, Nghe An Electronic Information Portal, Zalo system, Facebook, etc., trade unions at all levels also organize mobile advice combined with dialogues between employers and employees at enterprises; provide legal advice to workers and laborers at worker dormitories in industrial parks at night; organize "Law Day" for officials and civil servants of the Provincial Labor Federation to promptly disseminate new legal documents; focus on propaganda and legal advice to workers and laborers on the occasion of "Workers' Month", etc.

Distributing Labor Law propaganda materials to workers at the workshop. Photo: CSCC

In particular, to addressstrikesIn the process of resolving labor disputes, the provincial Labor Federation has coordinated with relevant departments and sectors to directly work and negotiate with employers, basically resolving the legitimate requests of workers, which have been accepted and committed to by employers. In the process of resolving labor disputes, union officials have explained and advised on relevant legal regulations to workers, employees and business owners, so that the parties involved can properly and fully implement the regimes, rights and responsibilities according to the law.

Assessing the legal consultancy activities, Mr. Nguyen Chi Cong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial Labor Federation affirmed: The legal consultancy work of Nghe An Trade Union has made many efforts to improve expertise, professionalism, innovate the form of legal consultancy and propaganda. Thereby, providing legal support, answering legal questions for union members, employees, union officials at all levels, and enterprises, contributing to raising awareness, understanding of the law, and awareness of law compliance, effectively resolving labor complaints, individual and collective labor disputes, participating in strike resolution, protecting the legitimate and legal rights and interests of union members and employees. Legal consultancy work has helped employees and employers better understand the provisions of the law, thereby creating trust of employees in the trade union organization.