Proposal to keep the People's Inspection Board in units without Trade Union organizations

On the afternoon of October 21, the National Assembly discussed in groups the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Occupational Safety and Health; the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Labor Code, the Law on Archives, the Law on Gender Equality, the Law on Red Cross Activities and the Law on Employment; the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Social Insurance; the draft Law on Implementing Democracy at the Grassroots Level (amended).

Participating in contributing to the Draft Law on Implementation of Democracy at the Grassroots Level (amended), Member of the Party Central Committee, Chairman of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Nguyen Anh Tuan - National Assembly Deputy of Da Nang City Delegation - expressed concern about the proposal to remove the People's Inspection Board.

According to Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, in non-business units, especially non-business units with very large labor scale but still enjoying 100% of the state budget, the lack of a Trade Union organization and if the People's Inspection Board is removed, it will put great pressure on the head in having to receive, explain, and classify opinions of thousands of workers in the unit.

This also creates a very large gap for workers to directly supervise, then express opinions and request implementation for regulations on implementing grassroots democracy.

From the above reality, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan proposed: "The People's Inspection Board will act as a bridge to implement grassroots democracy tasks between the heads of agencies and units and employees in the unit. No longer having a Trade Union organization, it is proposed to assign the Fatherland Front in commune and ward levels to guide the activities of the People's Inspection Board in agencies and units".

Regarding the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Labor Code, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan said that assigning commune-level People's Committees to handle strikes at large enterprises in industrial parks may be difficult, because enterprises often work with industrial park management boards rather than commune-level authorities.

Therefore, the delegate proposed to add the Director of the Industrial Park and Economic Zone Management Board to the group of subjects receiving information and participating in handling strikes. Because the Industrial Park Management Board is basically decentralized and authorized by the Chairmen of the People's Committees of provinces and cities to perform many state management tasks for enterprises in industrial parks and export processing zones, with responsibilities similar to the Chairman of the Commune-level People's Committee.

Contributing opinions to the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Occupational Safety and Health, the Chairman of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor is concerned that if there is no effective post-inspection policy, many businesses will not seriously implement regulations on occupational safety and health training for workers before working.

According to him, experience in some countries, especially Russia, shows that the requirements for occupational safety and health training are very high, in order to ensure that workers understand and grasp the process and safety conditions in the working process.

He cited the reality that some businesses organize periodic health check-ups for workers but workers do not go for check-ups. Businesses pay for a clinic and take test results to store for inspection.

It's such an important matter that people are still lying, so if training on occupational safety and health is "released", we are also a little worried" - he said.

According to Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, simplifying business investment conditions and reducing compliance costs for businesses is a correct policy. However, this issue is related to the lives and safety of workers, so there needs to be a strict post-inspection policy in the guiding documents of ministries and the Government.

In addition, he proposed to supplement regulations related to other employee representative organizations outside the Trade Union in enterprises, in order to ensure compatibility with the 2019 Labor Code in participating in protecting employees' rights to occupational safety and health.

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