Revise the Labor Code to ensure implementation of relevant ILO conventions

The amended Labor Code asserts that the State's policies and measures to protect female workers and mothers are consistent with the spirit of the 2013 Constitution, the Gender Equality Law and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and relevant conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO).

At a workshop on policy for female workers and promoting gender equality in the amended Labor Code, organized by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs on August 8, Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Ha affirmed that the amendment of the Labor Code is an opportunity to amend and supplement mechanisms and policies for female workers and to promote gender equality to suit national practices and global trends.

These issues have a direct and profound impact on most agencies, business organizations, and tens of millions of male and female workers in the labor market.

Therefore, the Deputy Minister suggested that the amendment and supplementation of policies for female workers and promoting gender equality must be consistent with the constitutional principles in the 2013 Constitution, ensuring uniformity in the legal system, ensuring compatibility with the international treaties that Vietnam has acceded to such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Conventions of the International Labor Organization; and changing the approach from "protecting female workers" to "promoting gender equality and ensuring rights" for both female and male workers.

The 2012 Labor Code ensured the basic principle of gender equality. The 2012 Labor Code has a whole chapter on provisions for female workers. These regulations have ensured the rights and benefits of female workers in the labor market.

However, the process of economic and social development, operating under the market mechanism and regional and international integration in the context of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, the implementation of regulations related to female workers and gender equality of the Labor Code 2012 has exposed a number of issues or become irrelevant.

Revise the Labor Code to ensure implementation of relevant ILO conventions

Regarding gender equality in the retirement age, Director of the Social Insurance Department Pham Truong Giang said the gap in retirement age has narrowed over the past decade.

According to ILO’s global social security report for the period 2017-2019, the number of countries with equal retirement age between men and women increased, accounting for 68.4%, while the countries with the retirement age difference of 5 years declined.

The gender gap in pensions in 2017 showed that the pensions of women were only equal to 84% of men and the income of female workers was about 15% lower than that of men. Elderly people have a growing demand for working after retirement, with 60% of employees aged 60-69 still working after retirement.

The revision of the Labor Code is an opportunity for policy makers, experts, workers' representatives and employers to research, recognize and agree on the mechanisms and policies for female workers, promoting gender equality in line with national practice and catching up with global trends. In particular, it is necessary to change the approach from "protecting female workers" to "promoting gender equality and ensuring rights" for both sexes, male and female workers.

Regarding this issue, the UN Women representative in Vietnam said that it is necessary to narrow and and then eliminate the retirement age gap between male and female workers; ensure the promotion of gender equality, without discrimination on the basis of gender in terms of opportunities, conditions, capacity to exercise rights and enjoy benefits in labor, especially in performing the maternity and child care functions suitable for gender characteristics;

perfect the mechanism of responsibility sharing between the State and employers in organizing kindergartens and assisting workers in sending children to kindergartens and preschools; and complete the legal framework to prevent sexual harassment at the workplace, contributing to ensuring a safe and healthy working environment.

Tran Hang