HCM City (VNA) – Social dialogue and collectivebargaining is the foundation for building harmonious labour relations inbusinesses, heard a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City on October 25.

The event was held by the Vietnam Chamber ofCommerce and Industry and the Dutch Employers’ Cooperation Programme (DECP).

Nguyen Tat Nam, head of the labour, salary andwage division at the HCM City Department of Labour, Invalids and SocialAffairs, said this city is home to the biggest numbers of businesses andworkers in Vietnam. In the past, it had a huge number of strikes, which hurt businessand investment attraction.

Since 2014, HCM City has carried out solutionsto build harmonious labour relations and ensure the rights and interests ofboth employees and employers. Its labour confederation has worked to promotetrade unions’ capacity, dialogue, negotiation and collective bargainingagreements.

Economic, cultural and social factors thatinfluence labour relations have also been improved, including by buildingsocial housing and enhancing workers’ material and spiritual lives, Nam noted.

As a result, strikes in HCM City have beenreduced, from 84 involving nearly 29,000 workers in 2015 to 53 with about18,000 people in 2016, he added.

However, labour relations haven’t reachedlong-term stability and there are still risks of disputes and strikes, saidTran Hao Tri, deputy head of the labour management division at the HCM CityExport Processing and Industrial Zone Authority.

He said that many companies haven’t compliedwith salary regulations or conferred with their employees before adjustingpolicies, and paid social insurance premiums late. Some of them haven’t paidattention to their employees’ daily life, working conditions and health. Up to97 percent of enterprises are small and medium-sized and most haven’t set uptrade unions.

Meanwhile, some labourers are still hesitant tovoice their opinions at dialogues and workers’ meetings, which could accumulatestrain and lead to strikes, Tri added.

Dirk Josse, a coordinator of the DECP’s labourrelations development support programme, said labourers are the first and biggestasset of each business. Therefore, building harmonious labour relations helpscompanies develop sustainably.

Labour relations must be built based on dialoguesand negotiations with mutual respect. Employers and employees need to have agood knowledge of law and bargaining skills so as to reach win-win agreementsand create stable labour relations, he added.

Sharing her company’s experience, Tran Thi KimTrang from the domestic affairs control division of the HCM City-basedFreetrend company said the firm became operational in 1997 and encountered somestrikes in the beginning.

However, the firm hasn’t had any strikes since2011 thanks to the executive board’s talks with workers before making anydecisions relating to their interests. Freetrend also established a divisionspecialising in labour relations to facilitate communication between directorsand employees.

If employers, trade unions and employees havemutual understanding, negotiations in solving disputes will be effective, thus minimisingdamage caused by strikes, she added.-VNA