The roles of Trade Unions in the grassroots in collective labor agreements

Up to the present time, the higher-level trade unions at the grassroots level in the province have implemented collective labor agreements at enterprises reaching about 70%, striving to achieve 85% by 2025. The signing of collective labor agreements aims to protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers and the enterprises.

With skillfulness in proposing the Collective Labor Agreement, Mr. Le Van Bien (left), Chairman of the Trade Union at the grassroots level of Response Co. Ltd. in Tan Uyen city and the Executive Board of the company's grassroots Trade Union have included many beneficial provisions for workers in the Collective Labor Agreement.

Side by side with working people

In recent years, the provincial Trade Union has continuously coordinated with trade unions at all levels in the province to promote the dissemination of collective labor agreements signing to each enterprise. Along with that, the unit opens training courses for trade union officials at all levels to enhance their knowledge of trade union activities, skillfully negotiate with business owners to include in the agreement the provisions that workers care about, and move towards signing and achieving high results Collective labor agreement.

The content of the collective labor agreement revolves around issues of caring for the lives of workers in the enterprise, such as: Wages, bonuses, overtime allowances, workers' meals, caring for workers on holidays, Tet, in cases of illness, special difficult circumstances. Depending on the economic development situation of the enterprise, the grassroots trade union builds programs to take care of the workers' lives, then proceeds to sign a collective labor agreement. The validity of the collective labor agreement is from 1 to 3 years.

Mr. Le Minh Hoang, Vice Chairman of the Trade Union of Tan Uyen City, said that there are currently 2 industrial zones and 3 industrial clusters in the area with more than 1,750 operating businesses, attracting tens of thousands of workers from other localities to come to live and work. Besides coordinating well with departments, branches, and localities to ensure security and order, take care of the lives of workers, the city's labor union always coordinates well with grassroots trade unions to grasp the lives, thoughts, and aspirations of workers. From there, the unit focuses on propaganda, building harmonious relationships in enterprises, including signing collective labor agreements, ensuring livelihoods, and employment for workers. The unit also closely monitors grassroots trade unions approaching the expiration of collective labor agreements to urge the signing of new agreements.

Mr. Le Van Bien, Chairman of the Trade Union at the grassroots level of Response Co., Ltd. (Tan Uyen City), shared: "In the collective labor agreement signing, the Executive Committee of the grassroots Trade Union plays a leading role, deciding the success or failure in representing the workers in signing with business leaders. Here, I want to emphasize that signing a collective labor agreement is about addressing the welfare of workers, but it is beyond the provisions of the Labor Law. The grassroots trade union must build a harmonious relationship between workers and business owners; always listen, understand the thoughts of workers, but at the same time must understand the operational situation of the enterprise in each stage, whether prosperous or declining, to implement the agreements.”

Mr. Bien further explained that if his company is facing difficulties in terms of orders, implementing collective labor agreements would require a lot of costs for the company and would be very difficult to succeed. In such times, everyone must shoulder common difficulties together. That is not to mention that grassroots trade union officials must be skillful before representing workers to propose solutions to take care of workers with business owners. Those proposals may not always be discussed at meetings, but exchanged through casual conversations with business owners such as sitting down for tea, coffee, understanding the psychology of business owners first in a "slowly but surely" manner before making final decisions when necessary.

Implementation prior to signing

According to our research, most businesses sign collective labor agreements every 2 years. This is the ideal time for grassroots trade unions to build care models for workers; along with objective issues such as price fluctuations, as well as whether the business is performing well or poorly during this time to adjust in a timely manner.

The typical example is the Executive Committee of the Trade Union at the Yazaki EDS Vietnam Co. Ltd. in Di An city has never failed in the contents set out in the collective labor agreements signed with the enterprise. Chairwoman Pham Thi Tuyet Nhung, Chairwoman of the company's grassroots trade union, shared that thanks to the stable business situation of the enterprise, the enterprise's leadership always shares difficulties with the workers, but more importantly, it is still the method, the way of organization, proposals from the grassroots trade union. That is the content that the grassroots trade union puts into the agreement to be implemented before, after a few times of implementation, it is fine, no issues with the budget, and when the workers respond positively, when signing the agreement, it will be put into by the grassroots trade union.

Ms. Pham Thi Tuyet Nhung takes the example as a few years ago, the company added a dessert to the weekend meals, and on special occasions, the company supported to have a special main meal, costing double the normal meal. This was done very well but was not in the Collective Labor Agreement, until the new Collective Labor Agreement was signed, the grassroots Trade Union included it and was approved immediately. Night shift workers feel very tired and exhausted, hoping to receive additional training from the company. The grassroots trade union recognizes this as a legitimate need and has proposed to the leadership that, in addition to the night shift overtime pay as stipulated by the Labor Law, an extra 5,000 VND per hour should be added. After several negotiations, the grassroots trade union has successfully persuaded the company's leadership to approve this policy, which has now been included in the collective labor agreement.

From the sharing above, it shows that preparing the contents of the collective labor agreement carefully, choosing the right time to request the enterprise to sign the collective labor agreement is very important. The period when the enterprise is "smooth sailing" in business will receive high consensus on the contents that the grassroots Trade Union presents in the times of signing the collective labor agreement. Conversely, when the enterprise encounters difficulties, the grassroots Trade Union only considers necessary and important contents to include in the agreement to achieve the highest results.

Reported by Quang Tam – Translated by Vi Bao