Procedures for conducting a legal strike

REPLY:

1. In what cases do employees have the right to strike?

The 2019 Labor Code stipulates cases where the Employee Representative Organization (EO) is the party to a collective labor dispute over interests and has the right to initiate procedures to strike in the following cases:

- The conciliation fails or after 05 working days from the date the labor conciliator receives the request from the party requesting dispute resolution, or the specialized labor agency under the People's Committee is the focal point for receiving the request to resolve the labor dispute but the labor conciliator does not conduct the conciliation;

- The labor arbitration board is not established or is established but does not issue a decision to resolve the dispute or the employer (NSDLĐ) is the disputing party and does not implement the decision to resolve the dispute of the labor arbitration board.

Union officials of Vinh City Labor Federation collect opinions from workers during a strike. Photo: DT

2. Procedures for conducting a legal strike

Strikeis a temporary, voluntary and organized stoppage of work by employees to achieve requirements in the process of resolving labor disputes and organized and led by the Trade Union of Labor with the right to collective bargaining (TLTT) as a party to the collective labor dispute.

Regarding the subject of organizing and leading strikes, according to the 2019 Labor Code, the Trade Union of Labor has the right to collective bargaining as a party to the collective labor dispute.

The procedure for conducting a strike must comply with the following order:

Step 1: Get strike opinions

- Organization to collect opinions: Trade Unions at the participating establishments

- Subjects for consultation: All employees or members of the management board of the labor unions participating in the negotiation.

- The content of the consultation includes: Agreeing or disagreeing with the strike; The plan of the General Confederation of Labor on the time to start the strike, the location of the strike; the scope of the strike; the requests of the employees;

- Form of opinion collection: directly by ballot or signature or other form.

- The time, location and method of conducting the consultation on the strike shall be decided by the General Confederation of Labor and must be notified to the employer at least 1 day in advance. The consultation must not affect the normal production and business activities of the employer. The employer must not cause difficulties, hinder or interfere with the General Confederation of Labor conducting the consultation on the strike.

Step 2: Decide to strike and announce the strike.

When more than 50% of the people consulted agree with the strike opinion, the General Confederation of Labor shall issue a written strike decision.

The decision to strike must include the following contents: Results of the strike consultation; Time of starting the strike, location of the strike; Scope of the strike; Requests of the employees; Full name and contact address of the representative of the Trade Union of Labor organizing and leading the strike.

Notice of starting locationstrike: At least 05 working days before the strike starts, the Trade Union of Labor organizing and leading the strike must send a document on the strike decision to the employer, the district-level People's Committee and the specialized labor agency under the provincial-level People's Committee.

Step 3. Organize a strike

At the time of the strike, if the employer still does not accept to resolve the employees' requests, the Trade Union will organize and lead the strike.

Workers and union members with questions that need to be answered, please send questions to:

LEGAL POLICY DEPARTMENT - LABOR RELATIONS

NGHE AN PROVINCE LABOR FEDERATION

Tel: 0919.742.006; 0375.037.037

Hoang Huong