Need for effective mechanism to protect union officials

Continuing the 7th Session program, the National Assembly spent the entire morning of June 18 discussing in the hall the draft Trade Union Law (amended).

Delegate Nguyen Phi Thuong ( Hanoi delegation) highly appreciated the amendments and supplements to the draft Trade Union Law as it has relatively fully institutionalized the Party's viewpoints, policies, and guidelines and Vietnam's international commitments.

Mr. Thuong basically agreed with the content structure and layout of the draft Law. However, he suggested that the drafting committee should devote a separate section to regulating the responsibilities and powers of grassroots trade unions (Chapter II), because according to him, grassroots trade unions have a particularly important role and position in the activities of the trade union system, and are the place to directly implement and concretize the resolutions, functions and tasks of the trade union. Strong grassroots trade unions mean strong trade union organizations.

Reality shows that the activities of the Trade Union in recent times have been very confusing and ineffective. The position and voice of the Trade Union in enterprises are still unclear, and the negotiation, dialogue, representation and protection capacity of the Trade Union is still a weak link.

Delegate Nguyen Phi Thuong (Hanoi delegation) spoke.

Mr. Nguyen Phi Thuong said that these shortcomings and limitations are due to many reasons, one of which is the lack of specific and clear legal regulations for trade unions. These are not just simple legal institutions, but also orientations, guidance, and facilitation for implementation and application for trade unions.

"The general regulation of rights and responsibilities for all levels of trade unions and types of grassroots trade unions as in the draft law is unreasonable and unscientific ," he said.

Regarding the rights and responsibilities of unions in the draft law, Deputy Nguyen Phi Thuong said that the provisions are relatively complete, but more importantly, it is necessary to provide unions with a mechanism to exercise those rights and responsibilities.

"In reality, the Trade Union is like a "tiny boy" but is wearing a shirt that is too big; confused and powerless. Trade Union officials all receive salaries from the enterprise and are always under pressure from the employer, which makes it very difficult to create equality in activities" - Delegate Nguyen Phi Thuong said.

Therefore, Mr. Thuong suggested that it is necessary to specify this mechanism by law so that the Union can be more independent from the employer. First of all, it is organizational independence, financial autonomy and an effective policy to protect Union officials.

Regarding organization, he agreed with the proposal to allow the General Confederation to use contract workers as full-time cadres at grassroots trade unions where there are many workers (Article 26). It is recommended that the law specifically stipulate that enterprises with 1,000 or more employees must have at least 1 full-time trade union cadre. The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor is assigned to develop appropriate salary scales and payrolls to encourage, attract, and motivate trade union cadres to wholeheartedly perform their tasks; from the financial resources of the higher-level trade union.

Regarding finance, Mr. Thuong agreed with the regulations on Trade Union finance and the management and use of Trade Union finance (Article 29, Article 30). Continuing to stipulate that the Union fee is collected at 2% of the salary fund as the basis for social insurance contributions is appropriate. This is a prerequisite for the Union to be more proactive and independent in organizing and operating at the grassroots level.

However, the Government should be assigned to unify specific regulations on the collection, management and use of union financial resources. This will help the state management of union finance to be more transparent, strict and effective, avoiding loss and waste. At the same time, it will also overcome the situation of business owners intervening too deeply in the union's financial collection and expenditure activities.

Regarding the mechanism to protect union officials (Article 28), Deputy Nguyen Phi Thuong proposed to have a regulation that when dismissing or unilaterally terminating a labor contract, there must be written opinions from the direct superior union, instead of the entire grassroots union. This would be more strict and appropriate, because if the regulation requires written opinions from the grassroots union, it would be very easy for the grassroots union to be manipulated and pressured to rationalize the termination of labor contracts for grassroots union officials by the employer.

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/can-co-che-de-bao-ve-can-bo-cong-doan-huu-hieu-post385512.html