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DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR, INVALIDS AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS - HCMC
LABOUR DISPUTE SETTLEMENT SYSTEM IN VIETNAM
LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND CHALLENGES
Presented by M. HO XUAN Dung
Deputy Manager - Labour and Remuneration Service
Context
In the late of 1980s, Vietnam initiated a major economic reform “Doi moi”
(Renovation)
- Transition from a command economy to a socialist market economy:
- export-oriented industrialisation strategy, focusing on labourintensive manufacturing industries: garment and textile, electronics,
footwear and food processing: 20% of the total GDP, 50% of total
export value
- Requirements : a need for migrant labour from agricultural provinces
of the country
- Revision of the legislative framework for employment relations:
- Labour code 1994
- Law on trade union.
Reasons: problem of conflict between employers and workers in the
new conditions of a market economy
Labour disputes settlement
system stipulated in the
Labour code 1994
 Definition of labour dispute (first time in labour code) : disputes on rights and
interests relating to employment, wages, earnings, and other conditions of
work; to the implementation of employment contracts and collective
agreements; and to issues arising from vocational training or apprenticeship.
 Classification :
+ individual labour disputes between individual workers and the
employer
+ collective labour disputes between the workers' collective and the
employer.
 absence of definition of labour collective
 the practice recognise it as all the employees working together within any
one enterprise or any one section of an enterprise.
 it seems that there is confusion between the right based collective dispute and
the interest based collective dispute.
Legal framework for labour dispute
settlement (under labour code 1994)
For the individual disputes :
Disputes  ECC or District conciliator  Court
For the collective disputes :
Disputes  ECC or District Conciliator  PAC 
Court or strike
Enterprise Conciliation Council
 Requirements: All enterprises employing ten or more
workers and having a trade union are required to set up a
conciliation council
 Composition: equal number of representatives of
employer and employees; the number of council members:
agreed upon by both sides
 The term of office is two years
 The chairman and secretary of the council are appointed by
rotation among the representatives of each party.
 Principle of agreement and unanimity
Competence ECC
examine and settle the individual and collective
labour dispute by the method of conciliation
set forth conciliatory proposals for consideration
by the disputing parties
Mutual agreement: disputes solved
 Failure of conciliation: right to request the
court
District Conciliator
In case there is no conciliation council in
the enterprise, the labour dispute can be
referred to the district conciliator, who is
selected from the officials of the labour
office of the district.
Provincial arbitration council
(PAC)
 Composition :- full-time and part-time members who are representatives of
the labour office, the trade union, the employers and a number of lawyers,
administrators and social workers in the locality;
- odd number of members, which shall not exceed nine, and
shall be chaired by the representative of the provincial labour office
 The term of office of the labour arbitration council is three years
 Principle : decisions by majority and secret ballot.
 required to proceed with the conciliation and settlement of the collective
labour dispute within ten days of the date of receipt of the application for
dispute settlement.
Problems
 Legally : these procedures remained primarily influenced by the principles of a command
economy; not flexible, but too complex for a legal resolution
 In practice, all collective disputes are settled outside the dispositions of the law
 Reasons :
+ workers do not have confidence in the neutrality of the conciliation council
+ No ECC = No PAC
+ Wildcat strike: - effective means for workers, supported by task force, who is created
by local authorities
+ task force composed of representatives from provincial departments and agencies such
as the labour administration, Federation of labour, industrial zone administration and
the representative of district people‘s committee
+ purposes : get the workers back to work to preserve social peace and public order and
to prevent the strike from spreading to enterprises.
+ Settlement method : help two parties to negotiate
 this solution encouraging the workers to go on strike without passing through
conciliation and arbitration stipulated by law.
The recent amendments to the
Labour code 1994
 Two categories of collective dispute:
- Rights-based collective dispute
- Interest-based collective dispute
 Two procedure of collective dispute settlement.
+ For the rights based collective dispute: ECC or district
conciliator (liberty of choice)  People committee chairman
 court or strike
+ For the interest based collective dispute : ECC or district
conciliator (liberty of choice)  PAC  Court or strike
Problems after amendments
Legal procedures do not work as the wildcat strike has proved to
be the most effective means for workers to redress their
grievances
“Workers are used to the intervention of the task
force and this intervention is clearly very effective, they
don’t want to follow the new procedures for their disputes
settlement. When workers want some things, they stop
working and demand the intervention of task force”
 Changes to task force activity : facilitate the negotiation of
both parties’ employers and employees by giving the
instruction
 Promoting negotiation in the enterprise. The failure of
negotiation between two parties provokes the strike, not vice
versa (the strike provoking the negotiation).
DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR, INVALIDS AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS - HCMC