Labor contracts, working conditions, labor outsourcing and overtime working hours should be clearly defined in new amendments to the Labor Code, said experts at a recent seminar organized by the Government Office and the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA).
According to the MoLISA, the amended law, which has 271 articles arranged in 17 chapters, has been made to catch up with the developments of the labor market, labor relations and the rights of workers to help mitigate labor disputes.
Under the draft law, the permissible annual total of overtime working hours would be raised to 300 hours. However, according to Mai Duc Chinh, Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Vice President, 90 per cent of strikes were caused by low pay and unreasonable overtime requirements, so that it should be kept at 200 hours as at present.
Under the draft law, improving working skills for laborers would be a task for employers. Specifically, employers would be required to work out annual plans on and set aside a fund for improving their employees’ job skills.
While the current Labor Code stipulates that employers may collect monetary deposits from employees, it still fails to specify cases when deposit collection is permitted. Under the draft law, employers would be forbidden from asking workers to make monetary deposits before signing labor contracts. However, according to Dang Duc San, director of the MoLISA’s Legal Department, it should have details on how violators would be punished and who would oversee the issue.
San also said that although laying off and outsourcing workers often take place in industrial parks and in such industries as maritime and petroleum, these issues are not yet governed by the current law. Therefore, the draft law should contain specific regulations on the relationship between employers and employees in order to prevent illegal exploitation of workers.
Another matter of concern was regulations on collective labor agreements which were mentioned in the current law but had not been effectively implemented. Therefore, dialogue and negotiations between employers and employees and the practical roles of trade unions should be made compulsory in the draft law.-