The issue of salaries, bonuses and staffing of full-time trade union officials was discussed by many delegates at the conference hall on the draft Trade Union Law (amended) on June 18.

Receiving salary from the enterprise, do union officials dare to speak up to protect workers?

Emphasizing that organizing trade unions at companies and enterprises is to protect the rights of workers at the company and enterprise, delegate Nguyen Huu Thong (Binh Thuan delegation) expressed great concern about the fact that salaries and expenses paid to trade union officials here are paid by the owners of the company and enterprise (employers).

“So the question is, do union officials in companies and enterprises really dare to speak up to protect workers when their rights are violated? In practice, we have recorded how many cases of complaints and lawsuits related to the legitimate rights and interests of workers in companies and enterprises where the union has stood up to represent and protect the workers? How effective is it?”, Mr. Thong raised a series of issues.

Delegates proposed that funds should be taken from higher-level trade unions to pay salaries, bonuses and other allowances for full-time trade union officials in companies and enterprises.

This is so that union officials can wholeheartedly carry out their duties of protecting the legitimate rights and interests of workers at that company or enterprise.

Delegate Nguyen Duy Minh (Chairman of the Da Nang City Labor Federation) supports the regulation on increasing the initiative of trade unions in personnel work.

“In my opinion, this regulation is appropriate because the amendment and supplement to the regulation gives the General Confederation of Labor the right to proactively propose the number of union officials who are civil servants and public employees in the system, creating uniformity in the payroll in the union system, overcoming the situation of equalization in payroll allocation,” said Mr. Minh.

According to the Da Nang delegation, the allocation of staff coupled with the balancing of financial resources, ensuring administrative expenses and expenses for trade union activities will contribute to improving the efficiency of using trade union finances.

At the same time, this also enhances responsibility in payroll management; management, use and implementation of policies for union officials.

“In order to avoid “bureaucratizing” union officials and “administrativeizing” union activities, giving the General Confederation of Labor the initiative to decide on the number of union officials who are contract workers in specialized union agencies and grassroots unions aims to ensure flexible movement in the distribution of union officials, meet the requirements of union member development in each period, and contribute to improving the operational capacity of the union organization,” delegate Nguyen Duy Minh analyzed.

Enterprises with 1,000 or more employees should have at least 1 full-time union officer.

Delegate Nguyen Phi Thuong (Hanoi delegation) suggested that it is necessary to define more clearly the responsibilities and powers of grassroots trade unions. Because grassroots trade unions have a particularly important role and position in the activities of the trade union system, and are the places that directly implement and concretize resolutions and strategies.

He pointed out that the reality shows that grassroots trade union activities in recent times have been confusing and ineffective, and the position and voice of trade unions in enterprises are still weak.

Among the causes of this situation, Mr. Thuong pointed out that there are no specific and clear legal regulations for grassroots unions. The general regulations on authority and responsibility for all levels of unions and types of grassroots unions as in the draft are not really reasonable and not really scientific.

Therefore, the delegate believes that it is necessary to separate the responsibilities and powers of grassroots trade unions in the public and private sectors because they have different characteristics. More importantly, it is necessary to provide trade unions with a mechanism to implement those rights and responsibilities.

“In reality, the grassroots trade union is like a tiny boy wearing a shirt that is too big. Grassroots trade union officials all receive salaries from the enterprise and are always under pressure from the employer. This makes it very difficult to create equality,” Mr. Thuong suggested that this mechanism should be specified by law so that the trade union can be more independent from the employer.

In particular, it is necessary to create organizational independence, financial initiative and policies to protect union officials.

From there, the Hanoi delegation proposed allowing the use of contract workers as full-time union officials at the grassroots level; stipulating that enterprises with 1,000 or more employees must have at least 1 full-time union official.

Along with that, it is necessary to build a suitable salary scale and salary table to encourage, attract and motivate union officials to wholeheartedly perform their tasks from the financial resources of the superior union.

Explaining the delegates' opinions on this content, President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Nguyen Dinh Khang said that the draft law stipulates that trade unions at all levels are guaranteed in terms of organization and number of trade union officials. At the same time, it allows the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor to decide on the number of full-time officials who work under labor contracts in specialized agencies of trade unions and grassroots trade unions.

“Recently, the staffing of union officials has had many shortcomings, so we have proposed to the Central Steering Committee on Staffing a formula based on the number of union members in each industry and each locality,” said Mr. Khang.

The General Confederation of Labor proposes to have a number of contract staff for the union's public service units.

Regarding the opinion that if businesses pay salaries to union officials, it will reduce the fighting spirit and protection in labor relations, Mr. Khang really wants to have a contract mechanism to have full-time union officials at the grassroots level.

"In particular, in Ho Chi Minh City, although there is no contract yet, the City Party Committee has assigned 22 union positions to be appointed as full-time union chairmen in establishments with a large number of workers and complicated labor relations," Mr. Khang cited.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Khang: Union funds directly paid to workers account for 84%

Chairman of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Nguyen Dinh Khang said that 75% of union funds are spent on grassroots unions, and 25% are spent on three levels of unions. However, in reality, the proportion of direct spending on workers is up to 84%.