To diminish the risk of labor disputes, provincial Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (LISA) has developed a pilot model of “Labor relation record” at FDI enterprises. This activity aims to support e development of harmonious labor relations and serve the State management of labors.
From a specific unit
After receiving Department of LISA’s official dispatch, LISA branches assigned professional mediators to take part in the pilot model. Namely, city LISA branch set up records of three enterprises: Phat Trien Company, Phu Xuan Company, Vietnam Precious Garments Company.
Setting up labor relation records to diminish the risk of labor disputes. Photo: Workers of Vietnam Precious Garments Company in working time
Mr. Luong Thien, who is a mediator directly surveying and filling labor relation records, said: “After the training and selection of enterprises, I directly called the businesses to send survey forms, instructed how to fill out the form. To assist companies and workers, I sent an email of record form for customers to take a look firstly, then made an appointment for visiting the companies to directly get information. Business owners often assign HR officials and Trade Union executive board of the company to receive and provide information for us”. In the process of record setting, Mr. Thien also instructed companies to implement labor regimes based on current laws, organize labor conferences, dialogues at enterprises and set up democratic regulations at the grassroots.
Noting and respecting all opinions and based on acquired information, labor relation record of each enterprise was set up very detailed. For example, workers of Vietnam Precious Garments Company used not to care about company operations and labor agreement negotiation. According to surveys, company workers did not know much about their rights and interests, or dialogue method. On the other hand, Phu Xuan Company arbitrarily changed their policies without learning about employee’s aspirations. The coordination between Trade Union executive committee and HR department did not gain high effectiveness, thus employee’s rights and interests were not cared much.
Initial results
After 3 implementation months, LISA Department has finished training, building a network of mediators at districts, towns and city. Currently, 18 enterprises with a high risk of labor disputes are recorded, like Phu Xuan Company, Han Xuong Footwear, Vietnam Yacht, Khai Hoan VRG, Vietnam Uchiyama…Based on labor relation records and technical guidance of Labor relation development support center, mediators have collected, processed data, and set up detailed labor relation record of each enterprise through many forms, like reports, statistics, surveys, interviews or group discussions… To create favorable conditions for mediators to assess labor relation records, LISA Department has assisted enterprises in full and accurate information provision.
However, the implementation process faced many difficulties. The reason was that this was a new activity without legislate constraints, has short implementation time, mediators must undertake many tasks, companies were not aware of the significance, purposes of this. In addition, some survey questions were duplicated in terms of content, causing difficulties to mediators while selecting the correct information to fill records.
Talking to us, Mr. Nguyen Phung Trung, Deputy Director of LISA Department, said during 2013-2015, the province had 255 collective labor disputes strikes at 250 enterprises, including 74.8% cases occurring in FDI enterprises. This affected badly security and order, investment environment, rights and interests of parties in labor relations. To continue deploy activities of the project, LISA Department counseled PPC to issue a plan for piloting labor relation record at businesses with high risks of labor dispute. The objective of this activity is to create the necessary databases for monitoring and evaluating labor relations in enterprises in order to have solutions and support the development of harmonious, sustainable labor relations.
Reported by Kim Ha – Translated by Ngoc Huynh
