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Unions strive to protect workers’ rights
District labour unions in HCM City have found it difficult to protect the legal rights of employees working for companies in their territories.
Thu Duc District Labour Union, which represents 70 workers from Hai Vinh Co. who wanted to file a lawsuit against the company’s director, sought advice from Thu Duc Court about the procedures for the lawsuit but encountered obstacles.
The biggest problem is that most of the 70 workers at the trade union do not have a labour contract signed with the owner of Hai Vinh Co, as required by the Labour Code.
According to Lawyer Tran Duy Canh from the Viet Law firm, without a labour contract a worker cannot file a suit against the owner of an enterprise that employs him.
In other cases, although labour contracts were signed between employees and their employers, the owners of the enterprises did not give the contracts to the workers, and the latter have no document on hand to file a lawsuit.
Truong Lam Danh, deputy chairman of HCM City Labour Federation, said this was the relevant authority’s mistake because there had not been severe punishment for those employers who did not sign labour contracts with their employees. That left the workers powerless if the companies violated the Labour Code.
Even when labourers have the neccesary documents, many of them are too impatient to pusue their lawsuits.
Some 700 workers at the garment manufacturing company Vina Haeng Woon Industry in HCM City’s District 8 asked the District 8 Labour Union to represent them in a lawsuit against the owner of the company, demanding salary and severance allowance after the boss fled in October of last year.
Eight months have passed since the filing of the lawsuit, but nothing has been concluded.
Do Thi My Dung, from District 8 Labour Union, said the lawsuit had been progressing at a snail’s pace because the court had ordered the plaintiff to pay legal expenses.
But when the District 8 Labour Union finally borrowed money for the legal expenses, the Court demanded other documents, including papers kept in the sealed office of the company.
Most of the workers have either returned to their native land for farmwork or looked for other jobs at other companies, waiting for the court’s judgement.
Flu’s economic impact
The local tourism industry, already suffering from the global recession, has been seriously affected by the A/H1N1 pandemic. According to travel firms, in the first five months of 2009, the number of international travellers to Viet Nam fell sharply compared with the same period last year.
In a report released at a recent cabinet meeting, the Finance Ministry said the tourism industry would face further challenges.
Only 1.6 million international travellers arrived in Viet Nam in the first five months of the year, down by 18 per cent from the same period of 2008.
Tran The Dung, a Fiditour executive, said that since the beginning of the year many inbound tours had been cancelled. He said citizens from many countries had been advised not to travel.
The travel division of the APEC joint-venture company has reported sharp falls of Japanese travellers in May and June. The rate of Japanese travellers in May 2009 was 16.5 per cent fewer than in May last year. June’s figure will be 39 per cent lower compared to the same period last year.
The sharp fall in numbers of travellers has forced travel firms to cut tour fees even more heavily.
Dung said Fiditour had joined the demand stimulus programme initiated by the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism and slashed tour fees by 10-15 per cent. He added that tour operators have had to slash another 25 per cent to lure more travellers.
The economic downturn and super flu has also made international travellers tighten their purses. Many five-star hotels and resorts are trying to lure more travellers by launching attractive promotion campaigns.
Ms Nga, a resident of Dinh Cong Ward in Ha Noi, said her family stayed at Vinpearl Resort in Nha Trang at lower prices. Nga said her 24-member extended family paid $152 per night per room instead of $200 as required previously.
In addition, the resort served three meals per day, all free of charge, under a promotion campaign which lasts until August, the online VietnamNet reports.
The White Sand Doc Let Resort has introduced a two-day package which includes food, accommodation and massage services for $155 per person.
Guests at the Sun Rise Resort pay the usual price for two and a half nights for a three-night stay and four nights for a five-night stay at the resort. In Ha Noi, guests at the Hilton Hotel from now until August 31 will pay only one night for a two-night stay.
The five-star InterContinental has launched a $238 package which allows two people to stay two nights at the hotel with free services at the sport and swimming facilities.
Counting golf courses
The Ha Noi municipal authority has denied that the capital city is among the cities and provinces across the country with the largest number of golf courses.
During a press meeting on June 16, the chairman of Ha Noi People’s Committee, Nguyen The Thao, said the city has only four golf courses, instead of 19 as reported by the media recently. The golf courses currently operational in Ha Noi are Dong Mo, Soc Son, Van Tri and Dong Quan.
Thao confirmed that only four golf courses projects had been licensed by the city authority so far. The other projects, Thao said, are only proposals made by investors and had not been approved.
"The city authority is very serious about this matter. Many golf projects have been submitted but we asked promotors to stop immediately," Thao said.
Two days after Thao’s statement, the city’s Party Committee Secretary Pham Quang Nghi ruled out a second golf course at the Tan Vien luxury international tourist zone in Ba Vi District.
Nghi was officially settling a case raised by the public that the ongoing expansion of the Tan Vien tourism project had threatened the neighbouring Moncada Frozen Semen Centre, which would be kept intact.
"The project’s second phase must comply with the locally planned zoning to be approved by the Prime Minister," Nghi said.
The tourism project was carried out in line with the former Ha Tay Province’s policy on economic development and restructuring but relevant agencies had not held enough discussions to reach unanimity on the zoning work, particularly on the project’s second phase, Nghi said.
He also instructed municipal authorities to co-ordinate with the agriculture ministry and other relevant agencies to review the use of land in the city’s territory, increase state management in the domain and establish a guide to resolve cases of inappropriate use of land.
Le Hung Vong
vietnamnews
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