Commentary on the draft Charter of the Vietnam Trade Union

The workshop on the draft Charter of the Vietnam Trade Union (amended and supplemented) was organized by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor in Ho Chi Minh City on January 23 with the participation of more than 70 union officials from the southern provinces and cities and the Vietnam Rubber Trade Union.

The workshop was chaired by Mr. Tong Van Bang - Member of the Presidium, Head of the Labor Relations Department of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Mr. Tong Van Bang said that this amendment to the charter is based on the implementation of Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW of the 6th Conference of the 12th Central Executive Committee on a number of issues on continuing to innovate and reorganize the apparatus of the political system to be streamlined and operate effectively and efficiently and Resolution No. 60 - NQ/TW of the 11th Conference of the 13th Party Central Committee and on the basis of implementing the provisions of the Constitution and the revised Trade Union Law.

Therefore, the Trade Union Charter needs to be amended, implementing the model of local government at 2 levels and regulating the non-organization of trade unions at agencies and units using 100% of the state budget to pay salaries to cadres, civil servants, public employees and workers.

At the same time, due to changes in the new situation, the Charter of the Vietnam Trade Union approved at the 13th Congress of the Vietnam Trade Union has some points that are no longer suitable, so amending the Charter of the Vietnam Trade Union is very necessary to comply with the regulations of the Party, the laws of the State and the reality in the coming period.

The delegates listened to Mr. Doan Duc Han - Deputy Head of the Labor Relations Department of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor - introduce the draft Charter of Vietnam Trade Union with 10 chapters and 47 articles (1 reduction in 1 chapter, increase in 2 chapters and have 8 new articles compared to the current charter).

Ms. Hoang Thi Ha, Vice Chairwoman of the Saigon Ward Trade Union, Ho Chi Minh City, said that currently, the ward, commune and special- zone trade unions are facing many difficulties in their operations due to unclear functions, tasks, and few staffing while the number of grassroots trade unions and union members is very large.

Ms. Ha suggested that the upcoming Charter of the Vietnam Trade Union needs to clarify the role, position, functions and tasks of ward, commune and special-zone trade unions to facilitate operations, especially relations with grassroots trade unions in the area and are ward, commune and special-zone trade union officials considered full-time trade union officials?

Mr. Le Minh Hoang - Chairman of the Binh Co Ward Trade Union, Ho Chi Minh City - suggested that it is necessary to consider ward, commune and special-zone trade unions as a special trade union model because they do not fully meet the factors of a trade union level. At the same time, expand the rights of ward, commune and special-zone trade unions in mobilizing social resources to care for union members and workers and manage, develop union members, and establish grassroots trade unions.

Ms. Pham Thi Quyen - Vice President of Tay Ninh Provincial Federation of Labor - said that the Provincial Federation of Labor is managing 2,173 grassroots unions with over 400,000 union members. However, currently, ward, commune and special-use union organizations are having difficulty in operating due to lack of people and unclear functions while having to carry out many tasks.

It is necessary to clarify whether the Provincial Federation of Labor has the function of representing and protecting workers in court, because this task is currently assigned to the ward, commune, and special-zone trade unions, while the ward, commune, and special-zone trade unions are not the trade unions at the grassroots level under the new model.

The workshop also heard Mr. Tong Van Bang exchange opinions related to amending the Charter of the Vietnam Trade Union to comply with the regulations of the Party and the laws of the State.

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