(International Labor Organization)
Annual Leave
Vacation
It is also states all workers are entitled to at least 12 days of fully paid vacation leave each year and one day off each week. Workers in heavy or dangerous jobs or those in areas with harsh living conditions can take up to two to four extra days off, depending on the nature of the conditions. Workers are entitled to an extra day of vacation for each five years of service with the company.
Maternity Leave
Female workers are entitled to four to six months of maternity leave a year depending on the nature of their work. They also retain 100% of their salary. Those with babies under 12 months of age are also entitled to an extra hour off each day for nursing.
Sick Leave
The maximum entitled period for sickness benefit in a year for the insured employees is based on working days excluding holidays, is stipulated as follows:
- He/she shall be entitled to 30 days in a year, if he/she has paid Social insurance contribution for less than 15 years
-
40 days in a year, if he/she has paid social insurance contribution for at least 30 years;
Form of Contract
According to the Code, employment in all business entities, including foreign-invested enterprises, should be based on a written labor contract, which contains clauses relating to: the scope of work, working hours, rest/ breaks, recreation time, wages, place of work, terms of contract, occupational safety and hygiene, social and medical insurance.
Labor contracts in Vietnam are categorized into three types:
- Contract without a definite term (“indefinite term contract”);
- Contract which is valid from 12 to 36 months (“definite term contract”); and
- Contract for a seasonal job or a specific job to be carried out in less than 12 months (“seasonal/temporary contract”).
A probationary period could be applied before the execution of a labor contract. However, it should not be longer than 60 days for positions requiring college level qualifications, 30 days for position requiring vocational level qualifications and 6 days for manual labor. During the probationary period, either party can terminate the employment without prior notice. .
Collective Labor Agreement
Any enterprise operating in Vietnam, which has more than 10 employees, ought to enter into a collective labor agreement (“CLA”). Normally, a CLA would be negotiated and signed by the Trade Union of the enterprise. The CLA could be specified to be binding for a period of 1 to 3 years (depending on case to case basis) and thereafter subject to renewal.
The Code stipulates that where the rights stipulated in a signed individual labor contract are less favorable than those provided for in the CLA, the respective terms and conditions stated in the latter would prevail.
Termination
The contract may be suspended if:
- the employee is required to perform military or civic duties;
- the employee is detained in prison; or
- other circumstances arise that the parties have agreed would warrant a contract suspension.
A contract of employment ends, other than at the initiative of the employer, when:
- the contract expires;
- the task specified in the contract has been completed;
- both parties agree to terminate the contract;
- the worker is sentenced to imprisonment or is prohibited from resuming his or her work by decision of the court; or
- the worker dies or is declared missing by the court.
In a number of cases the worker employed under a fixed-term, seasonal or specific-task contract of employment is entitled to unilaterally terminate the employment relationship before its term when:
- the employee is not assigned to the job or work location agreed upon in the contract
- the employee is not paid as specified by the contract;
- the employee is maltreated or is subject to forced labor; or
- an employee has been receiving treatment for an illness or injury for three consecutive months in the case of a fixed-term contract, or for a quarter of the duration of a seasonal or specific-task contract.
In such cases, the employee must give the employer at least three days’ notice before terminating the contract. An employee is deemed to have been maltreated or subject to forced labor if the employee is beaten or abused, or a female employee is made to do work that adversely affects her health, dignity, or honor as a woman.
An employee may also unilaterally terminate the employment contract if:
- the employee is unable to continue performing the contract due to personal or family reasons
- the employee is appointed or elected to a public office.
An employee who terminates the contract for the above reasons must give 30 days’ notice if he or she is terminating a fixed-term contract and 3 days’ notice if they are terminating a seasonal or specific-task contract.
An employee is deemed to be unable to continue performing a contract for personal or family reasons if:
- a change in residence makes going to work more difficult;
- the employee receives permission to reside abroad;
- the employee must take leave in order to care for a spouse, parents (including in-laws), or a child who is ill for at least three months; or
- the employee is in a difficult situation and the administrative authorities of the commune in which the employee resides certify that the employee cannot continue working.
Discrimination Laws
Disability Discrimination
- Establishments which admit disabled persons for training or apprenticeship shall be entitled to consideration for tax deductions, low-interest loans and other preferential treatment for the purpose of creating training conditions and facilities for the disabled.
- The Government shall fix the proportion of disabled workers which must be accepted by enterprises for certain types of work and occupations. Enterprises that do not implement this rule shall be required to contribute a sum of money as determined by the Government to the employment funds with a view to providing employment for the disabled.
- Enterprises exceeding the prescribed proportion shall be entitled to state grants or low-interest loans to enable the creation of suitable conditions of work for the disabled.
- Hours of work of the disabled shall not exceed seven hours per day or 42 hours per week.
- The employment of disabled persons, overtime or at night, of persons who have been deprived of 51 per cent or more of their labor capacity shall be prohibited.
- In addition to the rights and benefits provided for in this Division of the Code, workers who are war disabled or injured soldiers shall be entitled to preferential treatment reserved for them by the State.
Sex Discrimination
All acts of sex discrimination against women laborers and abuse of their honor and dignity by the labor user are strictly forbidden.
Labor Unions
The largest organization is the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, known as the VGCL. VGCL is the sole in . It was founded July 29, 1929 as the Red Workers' General Union in Northern Vietnam, and extended into the entire country after the collapse of in 1976. All trade unions in Vietnam are required to affiliate to the VGCL, and the VGCL is one of the mass movements of the . , the VGCL president, is a member of the . The VGCL is affiliated to the .
In the National Congress held in 2003, 64 provincial and city federations of labor attended alongside 20 national industrial unions. Total membership of VGCL amounts to about 5,768,133 (as at the end of 2006). This number is increasing, especially in the non-state sector. Today, the total percentage of women membership is at nearly 50%.
Working Women in Labor Unions
More and more women join the labor force every day. The industries with a high density of women workers includes: textile-garment, shoes- leather and fishery processing.
At present 37% of women in Vietnam have got a degree of either University or High college, 19.9% of them have their PhD degree and 6.7% of them are professors. When comparing these numbers to those of the women in trade unions, most of the women in unions have been given training from a secondary level and up. Among the number of women surveyed, 19.1% have technical or secondary level, 70.2% have University or College level, and 10.6% have an after-graduate degree. Compared to the women in the country, women in trade unions have received higher level of education and professional degrees.
With the rise in the women work force, women are often represented in policy making structures. In the National Assembly the numbers have been increasing: in 9th office term at 18.5%, in the 10th office term at 26.2%, in the 11th office term at 27.3%, as Ministers and equivalent positions at nearly 12.5 %, as Deputy ministers or equivalent positions at nearly 13%. The percentage begins to decrease at the central level, which is now at 8.1%. In Socio-political organizations, the percentage of women leaders is increasing (around 25 to 40%) when compared to other institutions.
In the present office term: the Central Level is at 20.7%, National Industrial union is at 30.3%, Provincial/City Level is at 37.6%, District Level is at 41%. As you can see, the number increases at the Provincial, District and National industrial levels, but decreases at the Central Level. Women account for 37.1% in total number of leaders from Central to Provincial Federation and National Industrial unions. In general, the percentage of women leaders in socio-political institutions is higher than in other institutions, accounting for from 25 to 40 %.
In short, we may say, in the area of gender equality, Vietnam now becomes a leading country in South East Asia with many achievements such as:
- Under law, Vietnamese men and women are equal
- Equal numbers of men and women participate in the labor forces
- The percentage of women in policy making bodies is increasing
- In November 2006, Vietnam passed a law on Gender Equality
These are the most important policies and concerns of our Government, State and Trade Unions. Awareness among the society on equality and efforts of women themselves is key. That’s why there are favorable conditions given to women to study and develop themselves in the country.
The Labor Code of Vietnam has one chapter (Chapter X) dedicated on working women. It specifies the matters concerning women workers, equal rights, opportunity for employment, study, training, wage, maternity leave, and many other categories of work for women.
However, the percentage of women leaders in trade unions is not at a desired level, especially at the top level. This percentage tends to decrease notably so when looking into the Presidium in this office term where there are no women are present. The work of planning, training, and assignment has not been paid due attention to and there is lack of measures to facilitate women workers and women in trade unions to make full use of their ability to make their contribution. Most of this hesitation has been due to some women who are reluctant to take trade union work because of family burden and also working and living conditions of workers in non-state enterprises are still poor with longer working hours and unstable living places. Because of these factors it is difficult for trade unions to involve women in trade union activities.
Union Issues
Labor relations must be improved and unions must be educated of the problems they are facing in order to prevent exploitation at the hands of the newly emerging market system. Although the future of the industry looks bleak for the workers involved, the VGCL is taking steps to empower workers in the face of the free-market economy. Since 1986, the VGCL has held meetings with the national congress every five years (although this is only a total of four meetings, ultimately inadequate considering Vietnam’s massive industrial growth in the past couple decades) (VGCL, congdoan.org.vn). The last meeting took place in November 2008, where they seemingly worked out resolutions to problems, solidified the structure of the union but are unfortunately faced with a lack of resources and investments to make many of the proposed plans a reality. At the state level of industry, unionization is still high at around 80%, compared to the 55% of unionization for FDIs and 25% for industries at the private sector (Vo, Personal Communication, 2009). Although numbers of unionization at the state level are high, FDIs and private sector industries are increasing in exponential numbers and if the pattern is followed in future years, they will ultimately become the leading sectors of industry, becoming harder to regulate, increasing chances of exploitation and pushing Vietnam further into the market economy which has been threatening the VGCL since the application of the philosophy in Vietnam’s government. The VGCL aims at recruiting 25 million more members into unions by the year 2013; a possibly unreasonable plan as it involves close to a third of the population and the lack of power from the state in Vietnam’s emerging economic situation (Vo, 2009).
Although pessimistic about the future of labor unions, workers have began fighting for their rights more often due to underpaid and overworked labor situations.
The frequency of strikes in the past decade have reached between 600-700 in Vietnam and can usually be attributed to employers violating labor laws and initial labor contracts. Ultimately, industrial employers can reject signing documents regarding minimum wages and worker’s rights and there isn’t enough enforcement at the corporate level to make sure this doesn’t happen. In addition, workers must give 15% of their paycheck as pension to the socialist party, however, many employers keep this money as they are not officially registered in Vietnam and could account for some of the lack of funds the VGCL has in order to impose their proposed plans and enforce legislation (Chau, 2009). The VGCL has brought some of these companies to court, however, the proportion of those punished and those violating labor codes is low and many foreign companies often hide their companies information from the government, making them impossible to cite and punish. In order to combat the injustices of many corporate industry owners, Vietnam has implemented a minimum wage plan around four years ago that will standardize wages for workers by 2010, regardless of whether they work for FDIs or in the private sector(Truong, Personal Communication, 2009). Although this plan should be unanimously agreeable, there are those within the national assembly who lobby against it, as they fear economic devastation due to the fact that employees will be paid equal wages regardless of the external market condition, in addition to the social security benefits that many receive. Wage equality continues to be an issue in Vietnam, with women making 85-90% less than men for the same work, while possessing the same qualifications for the job. In addition, age discrimination forces men to retire at the age of 60 (although the can apply to become solely a paid academic and work until they are 65 and women at 55(Vo, 2009). The value on young men placed by the legislation currently enforced in Vietnam puts a large portion of the population at risk for poverty and must be revised to allow all citizens a fair chance at a sustainable prosperous life.
Discrimination Today
While labor unions in Vietnam are working on limiting work days and focusing on wage equality (between industries, not individuals) there are still inherent problems in discrimination (age, sex and the disabled), as well as an inability to control labor practices by many foreign companies and companies within the private sector. The retirement age in Vietnam for men is 60 and 55 for women, after which they will be left without any retirement benefits unless loyal to a single company for 20 years, after which they will receive minor insurance stipends monthly (Truong, 2009). As a vast majority of the elderly is living with their families, either out of desire or necessity, the retirement benefits in Vietnam do not allow independence for those who are legally too old to work. In addition, child labor throughout Vietnam has doubled in the past decade, predominantly throughout rural areas where labor standards are even more difficult to enforce (Labor & Social Affairs Review, 2009). If a child enters into the labor market, there is no time for a proper education that could result in vocational training and will ultimately trap the child doing simple work for low pay for the rest of their life. Unfortunately, many rural families sadly and logically hold the belief that they will die without food and money, rather than without education, continuing this cycle until government intervention can solve the problems associated with child labor (Labor & Social Affairs Review, 2009). Sex discrimination is clearly seen in Vietnam, as a woman makes 85-90% less than a man for the same job with the same qualifications (Vo, 2009). While the intent from the ILO and the labor unions exist to change some of these problems, there is a recurrent lack of interest or resources at the national level.
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