IR Project

Support to Development in Industrial Relations, Wage Fixing, and Labour Law Implementation Institutions and Capacity in Viet Nam

The project aims to put into practice the new Labour Code and Trade Union to ensure that, by 2016, Viet Nam’s minimum wage system is reformed and industrial relations institutions and mechanisms for collective bargaining and social dialogue have been improved and capacity of all stakeholders are strengthened to bring the regulations and practices into closer compliance with international labour standards.


   IR Project's core documents  Researches and papers
   Events and meetings  Union Capacity Development Project
UPCOMING EVENTS
  • Final Project Steering Committee Meeting, 14 September 2016

Objectives

  • The implementation decrees, guidance documents, and other regulatory instruments and institutions for the new Labour Code and Trade Union Law are adopted for effective enforcement, and tripartite constituents and the public are informed of the new changes, especially regarding rights, protection, and their procedures.
  • By the end of the project, employers’ and workers’ organizations are more influential, more representative and provide improved and new services to their members based on greater democratic participation per the new Trade Union Law and Labour Code.
  • By the end of the project, institutions and mechanisms for industrial relations are strengthened and regulations related to industrial relations are improved and implemented, and collective bargaining and social dialogue are promoted more effectively, resulting in their greater use and effectiveness.
  • By the end of the project, the social partners are supported and capacitated for their role in ensuring effective participation in the minimum wage fixing system and wage determination, including participation in development of minimum wage law.
  • By the end of the project, the capacity of tripartite constituents is improved in support of international integration.

Main Partners

Target provinces

Hanoi, Hai Phong, Hai Duong, Da Nang, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, and Ho Chi Minh City

Activities

This project aims at addressing the following major issues:
  • Following the legislative revision, there remains the task of developing implementation decrees, guidelines, and other regulatory instruments for effective enforcement, which requires continued support. 
  • Effective implementation also require extensive effort for awareness raising among the immediate tripartite constituents and the public in general, through information dissemination, direct education, and training for implementation. 
  • It is vital that the new minimum wage setting institutions are able to fulfil the roles expected of them, to ensure the intended reform may take place, and move away from the current practice which expects the “minimum” wage to trigger administrative indexing and scaling to jobs throughout the economy. 
  • While the revised laws provide some improvements, the real improvement in the representative role of trade union requires support for actual efforts to bring about change in the way trade unions do their work, leading to innovations and strengthening in their ability to represent workers, providing a lasting solution to the representational gap, and resolving the underlying tensions that have lead to strikes.
  • Efforts have been made and supported by the project in past years by the VCCI to broaden and deepen their contacts with these employers in, for example, consolidating employers’ position on labour law revision. 
  • There is urgent need to develop policy and programme to develop a Vietnamese model of collective bargaining to be undertaken at individual enterprises, among a group of enterprises in the same sector and/or locality, and at the level industry, that can accommodate in an orderly and dynamic manner the often conflicting interests of workers and employers at the enterprise level and beyond. 
  • Support is needed to assist the Government to develop effective practices and institutions for labour dispute settlement, which can instil confidence in the parties to address their disputes through the procedures provided by the law.
  • It is crucial to continue work in creating and strengthening capacity of the government at national and provincial level to develop, implement and offer IR support services in an improved manner which is better attuned to the needs of local IR actors. 
  • Vietnam’s important economic development is fuelling its ever broader and deeper integration with the global community, its institutions and governance mechanisms. As a result, there is an increasing need for the support of the social partners, as well that of a knowing administrative cadre skilled and able to help the country wade ever deeper in these waters.
Access to IR Project's core documents for further information.

For further information, please contact

Mr Phillip Hazelton
Chief Technical Advisor
Tel.: +84 43 734 0902 Ext: 401
Email: hazelton@ilo.org

Ms Ta Thi Bich Lien
National Project Coordinator on Trade Union and Industrial Relations Master Plan area of work
Tel.: +84 43 734 0902 Ext: 403
Email: bichlien@ilo.org

Ms Nguyen Thi Hai Yen
National Project Coordinator on Employer's Organizations and Wage area of work
Tel.: +84 43 734 0902 Ext: 402
Email: yen@ilo.org