Social Dialogue

Research project: Employee participation in Viet Nam

Researcher: Dr. Do Quynh Chi (VietLabour)

Research sponsors: Industrial and Employment Relations Department (DIALOGUE)
ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

Research time: November, 2012

Publication: Employee Participation in Vietnam, ILO Working Paper Series, No. 42, downloadable from http://www.ilo.org/ifpdial/information-resources/publications/WCMS_194680/lang–en/index.htm

Summary of key findings:
The ineffective functioning of collective bargaining and workers’ congresses have led to the outburst of numerous wildcat strikes in Viet Nam. With a view to preventing such disputes, affected enterprises have taken actions on their own initiatives to enhance labour relations, particularly through encouraging employee participation. The study aims to identify several such employee participation initiatives of success, and to analyze and evaluate their impacts by grouping participatory models into those led through either team leaders (Model 1), trade union units (Model 2) or workers’ representatives (Model 3). Model 1 is the most popular one among the surveyed companies but had only modest impacts on labour relations if not combined with other forms of employee participation. Model 3 proves to be the most effective one even though the companies that adopt it risk overstepping the existing legal framework by encouraging workers to elect their own representatives who may not be union officials.

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