Rights of workers and businesses: Finding solutions to the problem of harmony and sustainability

The dialogue and information exchange between the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and the Korean Business Association in Vietnam (KOCHAM) organized by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor took place on January 15. This is the first time this activity has taken place.

In his opening speech, Mr. Ngo Duy Hieu - Vice President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor - affirmed that the Vietnam Trade Union always accompanies businesses. The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor highly appreciates the efforts, goodwill and social responsibility of many Korean enterprises in complying with Vietnamese law, taking care of the lives, jobs, and income of workers, as well as coordinating with trade unions to build harmonious, stable and progressive labor relations.

The Vietnam Trade Union always accompanies businesses, not only as a representative and protection of the legitimate and legal rights and interests of workers, but also as a trusted partner of Korean businesses, contributing to stabilizing the workforce, improving productivity, quality and production and business efficiency.

This dialogue and information exchange conference is an open and frank forum for the parties to exchange information between workers, trade unions and employers, and at the same time make recommendations and propose solutions to improve the quality of trade union activities in Korean enterprises, with partner agencies of the three parties, to build sustainable labor relations, bringing benefits to the parties through the form of dialogue and information exchange.

Speaking at the Dialogue, Mr. Ko Tae Yeon - Chairman of KOCHAM - said that there are currently nearly 10,000 Korean enterprises operating in Vietnam, not only in the manufacturing and manufacturing sector but also in the fields of distribution, logistics, services, information technology... accompanying and developing the Vietnamese economy.

Many Korean enterprises do not consider Vietnam as just a short-term production base, but a long-term cooperation and development partner. In that process, businesses always consider creating jobs for local workers, transferring technology and contributing to the community as important responsibilities in their business activities.

However, recently, there have been many opinions at the scene that ensuring human resources is becoming difficult. Not only unskilled laborers, but also skilled technical laborers and intermediate management teams are lacking at the same time in many different industries and areas.

In particular, in some localities, along with changes in the labor market environment, the rate of human resource shift is increasingly fast, causing the burden of maintaining a stable team of skilled workers at the scene to increase.

This is not an issue of a single enterprise or a group of workers, but a natural phenomenon in the process of adjusting the labor market structure in general.

According to the Chairman of KOCHAM, first of all, to make the labor shift between industrial parks and rural areas more stable, there needs to be structural approaches, such as inter-regional linkage models or forms of solidarity and cooperation between localities. At the same time, expanding housing infrastructure such as dormitories or social housing, taking into account the stability of workers' lives, is also an issue that needs to be considered in the medium and long term.

Mr. Ko Tae Yeon analyzed: "Stable human resources are not an issue that can be solved in a short time, but a task that needs to be approached from a medium and long-term perspective. When not only salary, but also working environment, career development opportunities and dialogue mechanisms based on trust are built synchronously, then workers can stay and stabilize at the workplace for a long time...

Mr. Ko Tae Yeon emphasized the need to find solutions to the problem of harmony between protecting the rights of workers and businesses...; at the same time, he affirmed that Korean enterprises, before being foreign enterprises operating in Vietnam, wanted to be considered a part of Vietnamese society and develop together with the locality.

KOCHAM will also continue to maintain regular dialogues and cooperation with the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, to persistently contribute to building a stable and sustainable working environment.

At the Business Dialogue, delegates shared information on the situation of workers and trade union activities in Korean enterprises in Vietnam; shared about the production and business activities of Korean enterprises; recommendations from workers, trade union organizations, Korean business owners, Korean Business Associations in Vietnam; exchanged solutions to remove difficulties and obstacles, improve the quality of grassroots trade union activities, accompany enterprises in production and business, care for the lives and welfare of union members and workers...

According to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, grassroots trade union activities in Korean enterprises are basically effective and practical, strongly oriented towards union members and workers, focusing on the core tasks of the Trade Union organization. The work of representing and protecting the legitimate and legal rights and interests of union members and workers has been well done through effective implementation of democracy at the grassroots level, dialogue at the workplace, signing of Collective Labor Agreements, and ensuring occupational safety and hygiene.

Caring activities are increasingly innovative and practical with appropriate models associated with building human resources for businesses. Activities to develop union members and establish grassroots unions have achieved many positive results, achieving a high rate, especially the rate of workers who are union members. Labor disputes and collective work stoppages are decreasing, and labor relations are basically harmonious and stable.

At the Dialogue, 50 union members and workers in difficult circumstances, those who have had work accidents, and those with serious illnesses in Korean enterprises received support gifts.

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