Nghe An: Low quality of collective labor agreements

(Baonghean.vn) - On the afternoon of December 21, the Nghe An Provincial Labor Federation held a meeting to summarize Resolution 01/NQ-DCT of the Presidium of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor on "Innovation, improvement of the quality of negotiation, signing and implementation of collective labor agreements" in 2016, and deployment of tasks in 2017.

Mr. Nguyen Tu Phuong - Chairman of the Provincial Federation of Labor requested the team of experts and leaders of labor unions at all levels to actively follow up with enterprises and build collective labor agreements to protect the rights of workers.

Implementing Resolution 01/NQ-DCT, in 2016, the Labor Federations of districts, cities, industry unions, and economic zones helped 23 enterprises with trade unions sign new collective labor agreements, and helped 83 units amend and supplement collective labor agreements, bringing the total number of labor agreements submitted to the Provincial Labor Federation to 542 copies. The total number of enterprises with trade unions that signed collective labor agreements was 350, down 4 units (8%) compared to the same period in 2015.

During the construction process, many units have collected opinions from employees and conducted negotiations between the union executive board and the employer. Most of the 106 newly signed and amended labor agreements have provisions that are more favorable to employees, focusing mainly on improving welfare and benefits for employees.

The collective labor agreement of Masan MB Company Limited has many provisions that are beneficial to employees.

However, there are still many collective labor agreements of low quality, which are copies of the law, only concerned with quantity and not with quality. Some units have not fulfilled their assigned targets. The number of collective labor agreements classified as A and B according to regulations is low; up to 68.95% of labor agreements have expired, for example, the education sector has 19/20 copies, the agriculture sector has 25/29 copies, the health sector has 9/12 copies...

In 2017, the Provincial Federation of Labor set a target of maintaining the rate of over 80% of enterprises with trade unions signing collective labor agreements; Over 70% of newly signed and amended labor agreements in 2017 being classified; Building a steering point to approach enterprises without trade unions to propagate and mobilize the signing of collective labor agreements.

Representatives of the Nghia Dan district labor federation raised difficulties as well as lessons learned at the grassroots level.

Speaking at the conference, Mr. Nguyen Tu Phuong - Chairman of the Provincial Labor Federation stated: Vietnamese enterprises do not have high stability, employers often do not want to have many binding ties with workers. If the trade union does not help enterprises build collective labor agreements, it will not be able to protect the rights of workers.

In 2017, the Provincial Federation of Labor, the Federation of Labor of districts, cities, and economic zones need to focus on a team of experienced experts to go to the grassroots to grasp the situation, be close to and mobilize, and help businesses build collective labor agreements; the Provincial Federation of Labor's Law and Policy Board directs units that have not signed labor agreements or have expired agreements to sign new ones; and carry out procedures to sue units that are slow to pay union fees./.

Thanh Son