Prevent disputes, stabilize labor relations

(Baonghean)- Not having a firm grasp of legal regulations has caused many employees in enterprises to suffer and are suffering from many disadvantages in terms of their rights. That is also the cause of unnecessary disputes between employees and employers in enterprises....

Protect workers' rights

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga is a worker at a construction materials company in Nam Cam Industrial Park. While working, she accidentally cut off her right hand with a grinder. When the accident happened, the company agreed to terminate the contract and compensate her 10 million VND. Confused and not knowledgeable about labor law, she went to the Trade Union Legal Consulting Center (Provincial Labor Federation) for advice. Here, she was advised on a solution, helped to prepare a disability assessment file and worked directly with the company where she worked. As a result, with a disability of 61%, Ms. Nga was granted a monthly disability support book, full treatment costs, and compensation support from the company.

Similar is the case of Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet, working for a company in Nghi Phu Small Industrial Park (Vinh city). Because her 3-year-old child was sick, she asked for a leave (verbally) of 5 days to take care of her child. However, when she returned to the company, Ms. Tuyet was fired by the management for leaving work without reason. In addition, she was fined 1 month of her last salary without being paid. When she went to the consulting center to ask about her case, through research and review of the records, the Center discovered that Ms. Tuyet's company did not sign a labor contract, did not pay social insurance for employees, and fired and disciplined employees in violation of the law... With the help of consultants and the trade union, Ms. Tuyet grasped the relevant legal regulations and fought to be accepted back to work at the company and enjoy related benefits.

Union officials provide legal advice to workers and laborers in Bac Vinh Industrial Park (photo by Minh Nguyet)

Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Huong - Director of the Trade Union Legal Consulting Center said: Currently, many enterprises still violate labor laws, violate wage policies, social insurance, health insurance, while employees lack knowledge of related legal knowledge, leading to many disadvantages in terms of rights. However, there are also cases where employees do not understand the regulations, have limited legal awareness, leading to labor disputes. Therefore, legal aid activities, propaganda to improve legal knowledge for employees in enterprises, especially private enterprises and enterprises with foreign investment capital, are necessary to protect the rights of employees.

In fact, through these activities, the Trade Union Legal Consulting Center has helped many workers protect their legitimate rights when disputes arise. For example, Mr. Tran Van Tung - Eximbank Vinh Bank, after complaining about the illegal unilateral termination of his labor contract, was compensated 9.4 million VND, Mr. Tran Minh Thanh complained that Nghe An Service Import-Export Joint Stock Company did not return his social insurance book even though he had terminated his labor contract and had his social insurance book returned. Notably, there was a labor dispute at Ho Chi Minh Square Management Board regarding the extension of the probationary period and the unilateral termination of the contract. As a result, 02 people were signed a 24-month labor contract, 02 people were compensated a total of 15 million VND to agree to terminate the contract...

Prevent disputes

Identifying one of the leading solutions to build harmonious, stable and progressive labor relations in enterprises is to improve legal awareness for employees. Because employees who understand their rights and interests will know how to protect themselves and respect the law. Therefore, in recent years, trade union organizations at all levels have focused on directing the work of propaganda, dissemination and legal education among employees in various forms. The main propaganda content is about labor law with topics on labor contracts, collective labor agreements, building labor relations, labor safety and hygiene, Social Insurance Law, Health Insurance Law, Trade Union Law, drug prevention, HIV/AIDS, etc.

Workers and laborers receive legal advice right in their rented rooms (photo by Minh Nguyet)

For example, in the Southeast Economic Zone, there are currently more than 60 enterprises and over 16,000 workers. To bring legal knowledge closer to workers in enterprises, the economic zone's trade union has focused on innovating propaganda forms such as exchanges, dramatization, and mobile propaganda in boarding houses to create a healthy and useful playground for workers, civil servants, and laborers. Communication sessions mainly take place in the evenings, on holidays or at the end of working hours....

Ms. Minh Nguyet - Vice President of the Trade Union of the Southeast Economic Zone said: Currently, some enterprises have gradually improved working conditions, focusing on occupational safety and health, but many enterprises have not seriously implemented occupational safety and health such as: Working conditions still contain many potentially dangerous and harmful factors; not organizing periodic training on occupational safety and health every year, using unsafe machinery and equipment, providing inadequate protective gear, workers do not receive annual health check-ups. Therefore, in addition to strengthening legal propaganda for employees and employers, we also coordinate with the Management Board of the Southeast Economic Zone to inspect and supervise the implementation of legal policies at enterprises. From there, we require units to develop, supplement, and amend labor regulations, salary scales, payrolls, collective labor agreements; Make a list to propose the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to conduct inspections of a number of enterprises in the Industrial Park....

In addition, to limit and prevent labor disputes in enterprises, the Provincial Labor Federation also advocates the establishment of legal advisory groups in a number of economic zones, training and providing professional training in legal consultancy, labor and civil dispute resolution for union officials, human resource officers and core workers at FDI enterprises and enterprises with a large number of workers. In 2015 alone, 435 grassroots union officials were trained, including training and granting certificates in legal consultancy and strike resolution for 35 union officials and human resource officers of FDI enterprises. Unions at all levels have also proactively grasped the situation, organized dialogues and negotiations between representatives of workers and employers in strikes. For example, the strike at SBE Company (Nam Cam) with nearly 5,000 workers participating. After 1 day of dialogue, workers returned to work. At Matric Vinh Company, because they had early information that workers were preparing to strike, the trade union at all levels advised the company to issue a notice to resolve the petition and postpone working hours, so a strike did not occur.

Enterprises and employees are not interested

In fact, currently, the work of propagating and disseminating the law to employees in enterprises is facing many difficulties. Due to the pressure of profit, many business owners do not want to, and rarely create conditions to arrange time for propaganda activities of trade union organizations. On the other hand, some enterprises are not interested in this activity because in fact they are using tricks to "circumvent the law" in the use of labor without wanting to be discovered. On the part of workers, due to work pressure, combined with limited awareness, many people are not aware of the need to update knowledge related to the law, especially the Labor Law and Social Insurance to protect their rights. On the other hand, the budget for propaganda work is still limited, the capacity of grassroots trade union cadres is still limited, the lack of specialized consultants ... are also factors affecting the quality and effectiveness of propaganda and legal education work.

On-site consulting activities like this have not been enthusiastically responded to by employers and employees (photo by Minh Nguyet).

Therefore, in order to bring the law closer to employees in enterprises, in addition to paying attention to the issue of funding and human resources, related sectors as well as trade unions at all levels need to actively innovate the content and form of propaganda to create appeal and attraction. Because policies and legal documents are often dry and difficult to remember, while the form of propaganda is boring, it is also the reason why enterprises and employees are not interested in this work. However, the important thing is how to make employees aware that equipping them with legal knowledge is a "weapon" to protect their legitimate rights. On the part of employers, they also clearly recognize the importance of raising employees' legal awareness, implementing labor regulations, labor discipline, and preventing labor disputes as key factors to help businesses develop stably and sustainably.

Khanh Ly