Labour laws seen as hard work by firms

Some companies fear the rules will give rise to the green eyed monster at work places

Under Article 97 of the the draft, which was tabled for discussion at the National Assembly last week,  employers are required to publicise their salary scales and sheets to their workers.

This regulation is said to protect workers’ benefits, but at what cost?
“There is always a large gap in salaries between managers and workers in every company. Thus, the openness of salaries will lead to disorder [caused by workers],” said Shutoh Noriaki, chairman of Japanese Business Association in Vietnam.

Noriaki said salary-related issues were responsible for 90 per cent of strikes and work stoppages in Vietnam. Nicola Connolly, chairwoman of EuroCham’s human resources & training sector committee, also opposed this regulation. “EuroCham believes that salary and benefit information must remain private and confidential.

Salaries are already a major issue for employees and employers. So having to disclose all salaries and pay-sheets would cause more issues for companies, as employees would be questioning their grade and pay level. We believe this will cause more strikes and discord within a company,” Connolly said.

Herb Cochran, executive director of AmCham Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City said: “Salary scales and sheets should not be required to be posted in public as these are considered competitive commercial information.” Also under the amended Labour Code draft, firms shall not have to register their own salary scales and sheets with authorities.

The draft underscores regulations on minimum salaries applied to geographical areas. It also carves out minimum salaries for working hours in some jobs and for some sectors. Chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs Truong Thi Mai said given the existing high ratio of manual labourers, it was  necessary to maintain the application of minimum salaries regionally as is the current practice. “However, when the salary levels of skilled workers get higher, regionally-applied minimum salaries should be replaced by career-based minimum salaries,” she said.

Dang Quang Dieu, director of Vietnam General Confederation of Labour’s Institute of Workers and Trade Union, said the new minimum salaries adopted by the government in October this year, ranging from VND1.4-2 million  ($70-100) depending on geographic areas, could cover just 56.7-65.7 per cent of the living costs of foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs)’ workers.