WHAT IS COLLECTIVE LABOR AGREEMENT?
Exploring the Internet, it is easy to realize that there are many questions about collective labor agreements (CLA), don’t you? Why do you need to register CLA? In this article, Lac Duy & Associates shall provide readers the best overview to understand the reason that why enterprises must register CLA? According to Clause 1, Article 73 Labor Code No. 10/2012/QH13 dated June 18th, 2012 (Labor Code 2012), a collective labor agreement is a written agreement between the employees’ collective and the employer on working conditions that have been agreed upon by the two sides through collective bargaining and including enterprise-level collective labor agreement, sectoral-level collective labor agreement and other types of collective labor agreement as stipulated by the Government. Besides, the content of a collective labor agreement must not be against the labor law and must be more favorable for the employees than what is provided by law. In the context of that the Labour Code No. 45/2019 / QH14 dated November 20, 2019 (“Labor Code 2019”) take effect on January 1, 2020, there are not many modifications and amendments compared with CLA specialized in Labor Code 2012. Specifically, Labor Code 2019 does not require all employers to draft the CLA and when drafting, the Labor Code 2019 does not specify what is required. In other words, the employer can proactively decide whether or not to draft the CLA and also proactively build up the specific content of the CLA, provided that the CLA content “must be contrary to the law”(Article 73, Labor Code 2012, Article 75, Labor Code 2019). For example, working time: Labor Code 2019 specifies the working time, however, if having any sudden factor, CLA can record to protect the labor rights. However, it is noted that the Labor Code adds some new points about CLA. Firstly, Labor Code 2019 (Article 75) allows a number of employers to draft the same CLA. Secondly, Labor Code 2019 (Article 75) allows, but not define the obligation to force employees to make commitments – this regime is better than the ones prescribed in the current labor law such as Article 75. 73 Labor Code 2012 “The content of a collective labor agreement must be more favorable for the employees than what is provided by law.”. In principle, the Labor Code 2019 does not require the employer to invite one or several other employees to participate in negotiating and signing the labor contract of certain employees and, likewise, the 2019 Labor Code does not require the employer to be obliged to the public the content of the labor contract (“labor contract”) of each employee to the other employees of the enterprise. Therefore, the employer is not obliged to announce the labor contract of one employee to another (Article 14 Labor Code 2019 “An employment contract shall be concluded in writing and made into two copies, one of which will be kept by the employee, the other by the employer”). However, the Labor Code 2019 require that the employer, depending on the nature of the level, let the employee participate in the drafting (before an enterprise-level collective bargaining agreement is concluded, its draft must be made available for comment by all employees of the enterprise – Article 76, Clause 1, Labor Code 2019); approving (the rate of voting for the CLA to take effect is over 50% – Article 76, Clause 1 of the Labor Code 2019) and, in particular, after the CLA is signed, the employer must announce it to their employees (Article 76, Clause 3 of the Labor Code 2019). And finally, the employer shall send 01 copy to the provincial labor authority in the same province where the enterprise is registered (Article 77 Labor Code 2019).
Thus, CLA is formed basing on the will of a group of employees, not being imposed and one-sided like the labor regulations. And, when having access to CLA content information, one or more employees shall have a better understanding of the regimes that the employer applies to all employees in the enterprise in order that the employee can negotiate to amend and supplement their own labor contract because the conclusion of the labor contract must not be contrary to the collective labor agreement (Article 15 of the Labor Code 2019). This helps employees to feel satisfaction, self-awareness and responsibility in executing the labor contract and minimizing the possibility of a collective labor dispute.
In particular, when having an individual labor dispute, the employee can refer the CLA to the competent authorities to resolve labor disputes individually and/or collectively in the order they shall consider the accordance of terms in the labor contract with the contents in the CLA. In fact, if the contents of the labor contract are contrary to the CLA agreements and causing adverse consequences for the employees, the competent authorities shall consider applying the provisions of the CLA to solve the problem in favor of the employees.
In addition, when a collective labor dispute arises, the competent authorities who resolve labor disputes also often invoke CBA in addition to the relevant labor laws, to resolve these labor disputes.
Lac Duy & Associates has many experiences in consulting, reviewing, drafting, registering, re-registering CLA and resolving the labour disputes. If you have any questions that need advice or support, readers can immediately contact Lac Duy & Associates for prompt answers and support.
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