A collective labour agreement (CLA) is a negotiated document between employees and employers that outlines agreed-upon working conditions, achieved through collective bargaining. CLA is considered a key solution to minimising and resolving conflicts within businesses, fostering harmonious, stable, and progressive labour relations, which in turn help businesses thrive and ensure stable, higher incomes for workers.


 Workers at Tessellation Hoa Binh Co., Ltd., in Luong Son Industrial Zone pull their ideas to the building of a CLA.


Upholding its role of representing and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of workers, the provincial Confederation of Labour has directed district, city, and sectoral trade unions to guide grassroots unions in negotiating, signing, and implementing CLAs at businesses with trade unions, ensuring that many terms are more favourable for union members and workers than what is legally required. 

As of June, there were 231 local businesses with trade unions employing over 34,000 workers, including seven State-owned and 224 non-State enterprises. All of them hold annual dialogues, with 172 of the 231 businesses (75%) having signed CLAs. Many of these agreements offer better terms and higher benefits for workers than those provided in law.

However, 25% of the firms have yet to sign CLAs, and there are few agreements that achieve an "A" rating. The bargaining and signing processes often do not fully incorporate workers' opinions before signing, lacking their consensus. Some agreements are signed merely as a formality, replicating State-mandated provisions without addressing workers' actual needs. This worsens the unstable labour relations and inadequate protection of workers' rights.

To improve the effectiveness of dialogues, bargaining and signing of CLAs in the future, local trade unions at all levels need to focus on several key areas, including continuing to raise awareness among Party committees, local authorities, employers, and workers about the role and significance of CLAs; and leveraging the provincial Labour Confederation’s legal advisory group to raise awareness of the legal regulations on CLA bargaining and signing according to the Labour Code.

They are also urged to regularly review the results of bargaining, signing and implementing CLAs, recognising and awarding units that perform well, and promptly proposing solutions to address limitations and challenges in the process. They must also allocate resources and funding to support dialogue, bargaining, signing, and evaluation of CLAs within various levels of trade unions.

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