German foundation shares experience in labour relations

Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnam General Confederation of Labour and Germany’s Friedrich Ebert Foundation are co-organising a workshop to share Germany’s experience in trade union activities and labour relations.

At the April 12-13 event, leaders of local labour federations shared the organisations’ difficulties and advantages, and heard the German foundation’s experience related to trade union activities and labour relations, including the role of trade unions in protecting the rights and interests of their members, reconciliation and arbitration institutions in labour disputes.

According to Chief Representative of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Erwin Schweisshelm, Germany’s basic law stipulates that trade union is the most important form to represent labourers. Therefore, its mission is to maintain working and economic conditions of workers and fight to improve them.

He noted that the most effective fighting measure is the signing of collective agreements with main contents on salaries and working time per week.

If negotiations on collective agreements between employers and trade union leaders do not come to an end, labourers can start a strike, he added.

Professor Daeubler from the foundation stated that trade union should be the legal leader of strikes which have to happen unpredictably to make employers understand how big the loss is if they do not follow the agreements.

However, in such sectors as aviation and health, labourers have to give strike notice in order to avoid losses to the country’s socio-economic development.-VNA