Working Paper No. 42: "Employee participation in Vietnam"

This paper is part of a series of national studies on employee participation practices in Asia undertaken within the research programme in the field of industrial relations in the region. This is linked to the ILO Global Product on supporting collective bargaining and sound industrial and employment relations, involving close collaboration between the Industrial and Employment Relations Department (DIALOGUE) at ILO headquarters, the ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and the ILO Decent Work Team for South Asia. The national studies aim at analysing the degree of employee participation within the enterprise, the forms such participation has taken, the issues that have been its focus, and its impact on workers’ rights, employment conditions and the economic efficiency of the enterprise.

The paper provides an in-depth overview of industrial relations developments in Viet Nam with a focus on how various forms of employee participation have evolved, how they are regulated and how they are put into practice. The changes in labour relations in Viet Nam since the introduction of the Doi Moi economic reform policy resulted in the enactment of the Labour Code and Trade Union Law in the early 1990s which envisaged employee participation through enterprise unions and workers’ congresses. However, mainly due to the ineffective functioning of collective bargaining and workers’ congresses, a series of wildcat strikes occurred against terms and conditions of work arbitrarily set by management. In order to prevent such disputes, affected companies have taken steps on their own initiative to improve labour relations, particularly through encouraging employee participation. The paper identifies some such successful employee participation initiatives which opened up channels for giving a voice to workers. It also examines their impact by grouping participatory models into those led through either team leaders, trade union units or workers’ representatives.

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Author(s)

  • Dr. Do Quynh Chi