Female labours rights under vietnamese labour law in comparision with swedish labour law

NGUYEN' THITUYET VAN HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY LUND UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LAW FEMALE LABOUR’S RIGHTS UNDER VIETNAMESE LABOUR LAW IN COMPARISON WITH SWEDISH LABOUR LAW SPECIALTY: INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW CODE: 60 38 60 MASTER OF LAW THESIS STUDENT: NGUYEN THITUYET VAN T H U V IE N TRUONG DAI HOC LUAT HA NOI PHONG DOC SUPERVISORS: DR.DAO THI HANG DR.PROF BIRGITTA NYSTROM H A N O I - 2004 Contents SUMMARY PREFACE ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION 1.1 Scientific basic and reality of the thesis 1.2 Scope and aims of the thesis 1.3 Method of study 1.4 Disposition OVERVIEW OF FEMALE LABOUR'S RIGHTS AND THE REGULATIONS OF LABOUR LAW 2.1 Concept of female labour's rights and the meanings of specific legal provisions on female labour's rights 7 2.1.1 Concept o f female labour's rights 2.1.2 The meanings o f specific legal provisions on female labour's rights g 2.1.2.1 For the female labour 2.1.2.2 For the employer 1o 2.1.2.3 For the State 10 2.2 A brief history of the Vietnamese and Swedish legalregulations on the female labour's rights 11 2.2.1 Vietnam 11 2.2.2 Sweden 15 THE ACTUAL SITUATION OF LABOUR LAW ON FEMALE LABOUR’S RIGHTS IN VIETNAM IN COMPARISON WITH SWEDISH LABOUR LAW 3.1 The rights of female labour in the field of employment 18 19 3.1.1 A t International level 19 3.1.2 In Vietnam 20 3.1.3 In Sweden 23 3.1.4 In Comparision 26 3.2 The rights of female labour in the field of saraly 28 3.2.1 A t International level 28 3.2.2 In Vietnam 28 3.2.3 In Sweden 30 3.2.4 In com parision 31 3.3 The rights of female labour in the field of social insurance 3.3.1 In Vietnam The allowance when child suffer illness 33 3.3.1.2 The allowance of pregnancy: 34 3.3.1.3 Retirement allowance 35 In Sweden 36 3.3.2.1 The allowance when child suffer illness 36 3.3.2.2 Pregnancy allowance 37 3.3.2.3 Retirem ent allowance 38 3.3.3 In com parision 39 SUGGESTION TO IMPROVE VIETNAMESE LABOUR LAW ON FEMALE LABOUR’S RIGHTS FOR THE COMING TIME 41 4.1 The requirement for improvement 41 4.2 Some basic strategies to perfect legal regulations on the rights of female labour in Vietnam 42 4.2.1 Supplem ent, am endm ent and prom ulgation new regulations related to the rights o f female labour in the fields o f job, wages, and social insurance 42 4.2.2 Review and approve International com m item ent related to the rights o f fem ale labour 4.3 33 3.3.1.1 3.3.2 33 Some solutions/measures to improve the efficiency of implementing the rights of female labour in Vietnam CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY 45 46 49 51 Summary Nowadays, in many countries female labour is an important part o f labour force Female labour is now taking part in different fields o f national economy Vietnamese and Swedish labour laws always protect the right to equal opportunities between female and male labour They have already set up many provisions aiming at abolishing discrimination between female and male labour in the fields o f employment, wages, social insurance and others These labour law provisions must be suitable with the International labour standards on female labour and is charaterized by each country's specific In Vietnam there has been no the Act on Equality between men and women but the right o f equality at work has been recognized in Constitution, in the Labour Code and other guiding regulations In Sweden, the right o f equality between men and wom en is provided by Constitution and some Acts, especially in Equality O pportunities Act This Thesis shall examine and compare between Vietnam ese and Swedish labour law provisions on the rights o f female labour (in the field o f employment, wage and social insurance) Then, it shall give some suggestions in order to improve Vietnamese law on female labour's rights in the current international intergration context Preface I hold it as a great honour to participate in The Swedish/Vietnamese Master Programme in International and Comparative Law It is a pleasure to express my gratitude to all the persons who helped me in pursuing my study and research First, I devote my very particular thanks to the Board o f Directors, prof Birgitta.Nystrom o f Lund University, Dr Dao Thi Hang o f The Hanoi Law University and all professors o f the project who helped and gave me invaluable knowledge I would like to extend my words o f appreciation to Librarians o f Lund University, Human Right Librarians, Librarians o f Hanoi Law University, Librarians of Research Center for Female Labour and Gender (Ministry o f Labour Invalid and Social Affairs) and all my friends Finally, I am indebted to Lund University and The Hanoi Law University for supporting my study To my family whose love and comfort encouraged me to complete this academic pursuit Abbreviations DOLISA EC EEC EU FIEs ILO JSEs M OH M OLISA PE RCFLG SEK SOEs SIDA USD VND Department o f Labour Invalids and Social Affairs European Community European Economic Community European Union Foreign Invest Enterprises International Labour Organization Joint Stock Enterprises Ministry o f Health Ministry o f Labour Invalids and Social Affairs Private Enterprise Research Center for Female Labour and Gender Swedish Krone State Own Enterprises Swedish International Development Agency United State Dollars Vietnamese Dong Introduction 1.1 Scientific thesis basic and reality of the In the human development history, the women rights in general and female labour rights in particular are always paid special attention to by nations in the world including Vietnam and Sweden These rights are not natural rights but are the result o f human struggles in the history and closed to the social development It is not accidental but Phurie a French Socialist o f the 19 century with the social civilization and advance are standardized by the extent o f the women's liberation Currently, the struggle for the women's advance has been carrying out not only a nation alone but also the worldwide At the 4th Women global conference in Beijing - China in May 1995, The general secretary announced enhancing for the women's powers means for all In fact, we have reached the initial results o f the slruggle for equality between male and female Currently, there is no society in the world bringing the absolute equality right to female, especially in the labour market The discrimination o f treatment to female is clearer Says, female employees are difficult to find jobs due to the requirements o f employers Female are paid lower than male employees; in the duration o f employment, the employer have an inquiry to rearrange his/her structure o f organization, female employees are always initially ended the labour contract to male employees In addition, at the same professional position, the female employees usually retire earlier than male employees In the time o f globalization, labour markets have been rising urgent matters such as employment’s, wages, unemployment and social security and others All have strong affect on employee especial female labour Beside their nature features of bearing and feeding their children, female employees have to take charge o f social duties Therefore the working time o f female employees are often longer than male employees As a result, female employees not have much opportunity to be thrown in their profession or they have to poorly paid jobs W ith the above function, female labour have to face with more challenges in employment, wages, working condition, social insurance than male labour In order to protect female labour, Vietnam and Sweden laws have legal regulation on female labour in the institution, rules, acts, doctrines These regulation practically are taken the best use o f their possessiveness, making contribution to the empower, and enhancing the equality between male and female labours, moreover, it encourages to improve their great roles in all social fields o f life In facts, these regulation o f female labour's rights have met some bottlenecks in the implementation and learning experience worldwide is necessary, especially Sweden is one o f the countries having many regulations on female labour's rights that Vietnam should learn and refer to fulfill their law system on female labour's rights Originating from the above reasons, I choose "Female labour rights under Vietnamese labour law in comparison with Swedish labour law" I hope that the result o f this study will make some contribution to the fulfillment o f the law system o f Vietnam on female labour's rights In Sweden as well in Vietnam, the mater o f female labour's right are studied by some project in gender study or mentioned to female labour in general Say, some o f the M aster themes in Lund university on social security The studies SIDA/ Sweden on policies and employment as well as gender equality In Vietnam there are also studies on female labour such as Master theme on laws on female labour/ some o f the practices and theories by Ly Thi Hoa -2002 RCFLG o f M inistry o f Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs has also studies on female labour but only in general such as Vietnamese female labour industries in the innovation stage Office o f Vietnamese National Assembly and UNICEF have also publication on rights o f female labour and children provided in International and domestic legal documents Here in, "Female labour rights under Vietnamese labour law in comparison with Swedish labour law" will provide the approach to the female labour's rights which is a systematic study o f the legal regulation on female labour's rights from comparative views o f Vietnamese and Swedish labour laws in some fields in employment, wages and social insurance 1.2 Scope and aims of the thesis Female labour's rights is one o f the expansive and sophisticated field In the frame o f a thesis, I have not much chance to deal with all extents related to the female labour's rights but only on the limitation o f study on female labour's rights o f employment, wages, social insurance from comparative views between Vietnam laws and Sweden laws Other rights o f employee in general will be suitably mentioned The purposes o f this theme is to clarify systematically regulations o f the Vietnam labour law and comparing with those o f Sweden labour laws on female labour's rights in the matters o f employment, wages, social security and thereby specify the similarity and difference as well as the explanation for these Finally, I boldly suggest some solution to complete Vietnamese labour law on female labour's rights in light o f Swedish labour law that keep pace with socio-economic development o f the country 1.3 Method of study The most important method used in this thesis is comparative analysis method in order to find out the similarity and differences between the two labour law systems on female labour rights o f Vietnam and Sweden Synthetic method is also used to give conclusion and suggest some proposal Besides, I also use disciptive method by diagrams or tables in order to give necessary statistics for reasearching and illustrating the right o f female labour 1.4 Disposition The study begins with a theoretical concep o f female labor's rights; meanings o f specific legal provisions o f female labor's rights and brief history o f the Vietnamese and Swedish legal regulations on the female labor's rights (Chapter 2) In Chapter compares female labor's rights between Vietnamese and Swedish labour law Focus is female labor's rights in the field o f employment, wage and social security in order to point out similarities and differences Proposal to complete and effectively implement the provisions in Vietnamese labour law on female labor's rights Base on the analyzation and practice o f implementation Vietnamese and Swedish labour law on female labor's rights, I hope to put forward proposal to complete the law and ensure that these provisions is not only in law but also practical to implement in order to protect the main labour force o f society - female labor (Chapter 4) Finally, I make conclusion base on above comparison and analyze about female labor's right in Vietnamese labour law and Swedish labour law There is this difference because the thought o f each nation The thought o f Vietnam ese is that female should tale retirement earlier than male Under the regulation o f Sweden law gender equality is that both retire at the same age The retirem ent age o f Vietnamese in general and female labour in particular is lower than Sweden because the average expectancy in Vietnam is lower than in Sweden ( in Vietnam the average expectancy is 70.35 and female expectancy is 73.02 years old, that o f male is 67.86 years old and in Sweden it is 80.3 years old, female is 82.62, male's 78.12) Different from Sweden, Vietnam labour law has social insurance regulation in general including the retirement allowance in compulsory and volunteer However, the compulsory is not full and volunteer insurance has not been implemented in practice The difference because under the Vietnam regulation payment of social insurance though employee's salary and employers's Currently the private account system o f Vietnam ese has not developed Employees are not obliged to open account so that State can control their income Therefore the social insurance payment can not be implemented through tax and private account like in Sweden Volunteer insurance especially for retirement has not specific regulation It leads to those who are not social insurance participants have not chance to take part in compulsory social insurance so that they can enjoy at their old age However, Vietnam is one nation with young market economy, regulation on retirement is also being fulfilled to suit the new economy Com pared with Sweden, it is a developed country with good social affairs Therefore the retirement allowance is very flexible, suitable with the economic conditions o f Sweden In conclusion, in general Vietnam and Sweden laws had regulations on taking care o f ill children, pregnancy and retirement allowance suitable with international working condition However, there are some differences which need to be fulfilled by Vietnam in the time to come 40 Suggestion to improve Vietnamese labour law on female labour’s rights for the coming time 4.1 The requirement for improvement The econom ic innovation in Vietnam has had good achievements brought the country out o f the economic crisis in 1980 and laying milestone to industrialize and m odernize the country In the important development of the socio- economy, labour law makes contribution to change working relation and rights o f female labour in particular The innovation o f these regulations on female labour from idea to content that more than past ten years labour code m ade important contribution to erase backward ideas on fem ale in the society, step by step establish legal basis for female labour to enjoy their rights However Vietnam law system has just been come out the ordinary and passive frame The practice shows that law on female labour rights in the subsidiary centralization failed to meet the market requirements Though Vietnam labour code issued in 1995 and supplem ented in 2002, there are all regulations on female labour, there rem ain some limitations To suit with the economic development and integrations in to world economy we should further fulfill regulations on the rights o f female labour - The fulfillment have to meet the following requirements: The plan, policy o f the Vietnamese Communist Party on women in general and female labour in particular shall lead the process fullfiment basing on these • • • 87 following directions: (i) W omen are employees, citizens and mothers, the first teacher o f a human being, and also the people who lay the milestone o f forming characteristic, spirit, and idea for the following generation (ii) The main o f liberating women nowadays is to improve materialistic and spiritual life for women, better implement gender equality, happiness Helping Vietnamese women with health, intellect, dynamic and creativeness, to know how to enrich legally and aware o f the society and community with humanity (iii) Women Liberation is party's responsibility, States, people and entire society and every family The ways o f liberation is legalized in law system - It shall be ensured that all amendment, supplements are practical These have to ensure rights o f female labour are practically implemented 8/ Political Bureau, Solution N o.04/NQ-TW Innovating and enhancing the work o f agitating women in new situation, July 12, 1993 41 m eanw hile ensure legal rights/interests o f employer in the market economy In the other word, we have to harmoniously co-operate the social policies and econom ic ones in the field o f labour in which the economic policies is basem en t and foundation for carrying out social policies vice-verce social policies are energetic o f economic development A m endm ent, supplement and promulgation o f the legal documents on labour should be carried out basically in long term on the basic o f scientific forecast about the need for labour regulation on labour relations o f society m eanw hile ensuring compliance between labour law and others In the procedures o f fulfillment o f the law on right o f female labour with reference and learning experience from other nations Taking best uses o f advantages o f the others into Vietnam to ensure the flexibly, suitability to the socio economy, avoiding outthought application To suitable the international trend and standard o f International labour on right o f fem ale labour, Vietnam need to learn some o f others in the working relation In conclusion, amendment, supplement and promulgation o f new regulations on the right o f female labour is necessary and urgent task To this, it is necessary to meet the above requirements From the view o f this thesis, I boldly suggest some suggestions in order to contribute to fulfillm ent the right o f female labour in Vietnam 4.2 Some basic strategies to perfect legal regulations on the rights of female labour in Vietnam 4.2.1 Supplement, amendment and promulgation new regulations related to the rights of female labour in the fields of job, wages, and social insurance In general, legal regulations on the rights o f female labour in the field o f job, wages, and social insurance have many advantages On one hand, these regualation show the interest o f our communist party and States to female labour, and have certain influence on the growth and advance o f women in general and female labour in particular However, in addition to the advantages, thay also have disadvantages and limitations affecting the rights o f female labour In order to get over some o f the limitations o f the current labour law on female labour, I would like to give out some suggestions as follow: T he First, Jobs and wages There is a need to suppliment regulation on direct/indirect discrimination in the labour relation In light of Swedish labour law show that: The regulation on direct/indirect discrimination takes avandtages in preventing discrimination in labour relation, especialy discrimination with female labour This regulation is also the legal basement for State authorities 42 relying on when punish the employer who have discriminative treatment w ith the employee Moreover, from the practice, there exists the difference in treatm ent in the field o f jobs, and recruitment o f female labour, therefore there appears to remain the prejudice o f gender in Vietnam leading to the disadvantages for female labour Especially, in recruitment and job assurance for female labour has limitations, as some o f them have to com m ite with enterprenures that they will not get married and bear child in the certain time, usually two years, if they want to work “ this fact is very popular in the state owned enterprises with large number o f female labour”.88 There a need to have sanction for enterprenurers who have announcement that only recruit male labour or so prior to male labour and this priority does not due to the requirement o f the job Because in fact enterprenurers does not w ant to recruit female labour and publicly announce recruitment for man only, but labour inspectors still now nothing for this due to none sanction provided by law So, having suitable sanction will ensure the effectiveness o f regulations on protecting female labour and enhencing the im plem entation of this regulations, especialy in the field o f job and recruitm ent From point o f view, the regulation o f Swedish labour law in these fields can be suitable for the situation in Vietnam nowaday Accordingly, the employer have to be compensated for his discrimination treatment The right to investigate and apply sanction resides in Ombudsman Item 2, Article 111 should be replaced by clearer regulations binding enterprises when they issue recruitment standards and they have to be exactly, objective, equally agreed to employees without discrimination o f gender Because the item article 111 is invisible and inpractice Furthermore, it is very difficule to prove or determine whether the employer break the labour law by giving no priority for recruitment to female labour To have inspecting implementation o f job opportunity equality for female labour, labour law should regulate that in the collective agreement, there must be gender equality in working relation Such provision will able local trade union to negociate the issues relating to job, wage, working condition while improve gender equlity and working conditions At the same time, in the reports on working relation submitted to labour bodies at the provincial level, enterprises should report the gender equality in work, in payment, and other related matters, measures to enhance gender equality in business It should have regulations that give priority to enterprises that employed much female labour In fact, many businessmen said that they are facing with many difficulties and are limited the priority regulations for crowded female labour employment For example, the confirmation system for the business is so bulky, tax reduction is not carried out due to so many documents and procedures The Second, social insurance ss Supra note 5, p 131 43 Firstly, taking employee's ill child It should be regulated the num ber o f leaving days for the ill chill under the age o f years old, it is suggested 20 days/year It is suggested because the allowance to take care ill child for employees is short and temporary Moreover, the expenditure o f the three: illness, pregnancy, working accidents - professional diseases only m ake up 30% o f the income It can be proved in table No Table No 2: C ollection an d expenditure for sh o rt term social in su n ce s, (illness, p reg n an cy , an d professional diseases) LI m i b iLion \l N Y ear Collect Expend Redundant 1997 861 235 626 1998 969 280 1,315 1999 1,047 278 2,084 2000 1,252 376 2,960 2001 1,587 451 4,096 Source: Data o f Vietnamese Social Insurance For some employees w ith ill child for long, law should regulate this case because as analyzed in the part 3.3 o f thesis, female labour are those who often have to be o ff work to take care o f their children, therefore, if the law does not regualate in some special cases the risk o f loosing work can be happened M oreover, employees themselves whislt being ill, are devided into two kinds o f suitable leave by law They are unserious illness (the max leave is 60 days) and stop working in some special diseases needing to be treated for long period (leave o f 180 days) Especially, the law also regulates, employees can have additional leave while long leave expires with lower allowance Secondly, law should regulate that in the case o f female labour miss the breast feeding ability when bearing and doctor certifies babies should not be fed by its mother breasts The particular should be continually studied to ensure collection and expenditures o f the insurance fund However, this is a deservative desire o f female employees to protect their health and child ‘s regular growth after being bom and also erase the finacial burden for their parents Thirdly, the age o f retirement o f female labour should be more flexible In the current social economic condition in Vietnam, regulating the retirement age should be up to branhces and industries, ability, and work to ensure the equality between male and female The regulation on retirement age o f male and female now is very strict Isn’t it better to improve the age o f retirement for the employee working in the field o f scientific researching, teaching, managing and leading,., (equal with that for male now) therefore, women can devote, as well as enjoy what they can not when bearing and feeding their babies? This does not only ensure their benefit but also society However, female labour handwork in hard branches can enjoy early retirement (for example, at the age o f fifty) Fourth, current legal documents on social insurance are diversified and most of them are Degrees or Circulars) Besides, to ensure the agreed features in the law system in general (such as, with business law, 44 cooperative law, law on business bankruptcy and wage reform, social policy innovation in particular ), law on social insurance should be systematized and legalized in an Act To fufill some regulations on social insurance relating to female labour rights and to m eet the State management requirements as well as em ployees's desires in the current stage, State should immediately prom ulgate an Act on social insurance Beside these above suplement and am endm ent, the item 2, Article 141 - Labour Code should regulates more detail on volunteer social insurance Such as, members o f collective cooperative and other employees ( for example, the labour work under the labour contract that is no longer than three months) who desire to engage in social insurance have not taken part in yet Most employees at small businesses readily to take part in social insurance (57%) There is 44% o f small women employers can pay 40,000 VND to 50,000 VND/month/ employee to social insurance fund and the same proportion o f men employers readily pay 20,000 VND to 30,000 VND/ month/employee The employees say that they only accept to extract (from 20,000 to 30,000 V ND /m onth for one social insurance allowance) to pay themselve for social insurance fund.89 So the number o f person who desire to engage in social insurance is still so great and they are facing ostacle to participate due to the lack o f detail provisions 4.2.2 Review and approve international commitement related to the rights of female labour The cause o f globalization has great influence on working relation, to fulfill regulation suitable with standard o f international labour, Vietnam should also consider and approve treaty on female labour right, especialy the convention on pregnancy (treaty no in 1919); The convention on gender equality at work This issue is paid attention by Vietnam the government by adhering two o f three conventions o f ILO on this issue (treaty 100 in 1951 and 111 in 1958, except the convention no 156 - Employees with family responsibility in 1981) The purpose o f the treaty No 156 is to create the equality in opportunity and treatment between male and female in family The approval o f this treaty is necessary because it is applied for both with equal rights both at work, family and children responsibility if these responsibilities may hinder them in taking part in economic activities The treaty require countries to make it as the main national target to help employee bearing burden of family responsibility to take part in labour relation without geder dicrimnation and furthermore to erase the conflict between their family responsibility and the out family work And it also has measures to build plans and services in community, such as taking care of children, family service and other servieces Moreover, treaty provides information and education to bring the knowledge on the regulation on equality on treatment and opportunity between male and female in the issues Supra note 5, p 141 45 relating to fam ily responsibility o f the employee It also provides the m easures to create the opportunity on the fields o f vocation and training as well The treaty announces that the family responsibility itselfe can not be the reason for dism isal to female or male labour 4.3 Some solutions/measures to improve the efficiency of implementing the rights of female labour in Vietnam For the past, the participation o f Vietnamese women to labour force has been considerably increased and there is also some positive progresses in the field o f equality o f opportunity and treatment between male labour and female labour These positiveness will go further if suitable measures are built and im plem ented The national labour policy shou’d take into account the requirem ent for these measures and the right o f female labour should be exertly takent into account in all policies to aim at the target o f equality in w orking life and to enable female labour easily have opportunity to have their desirable job Following are some our suggest measures to improve the effectiveness o f im plem entation o f female labour rights The first, the investigation and inspectation enhancing o f im plem enting the right o f female labour and fine the infringing acts o f female labour rights One o f the State authorities to protect the rights o f o f employee, including female labour, is labour inspector In Vietname, labour Inspector is multi level authority (ministerial level, provincial levels) belongs to the management o f M OLISA and DOLISA Labour inspector takes the function o f state inspecting in the field o f labour The labour State inspector have the right to solve petition o f employee (and female labour as well) and give fine to infring acts in the field o f labour law However, for many reasons, especialy, lack o f knowledge and experience (many inspectors have not been professionaly trained) in solving labour peition Solving petition that relates to discrimination or unequality between female labour and male labour in the field o f working is very new to many labour inspector So, for improving for the frequency and effectiveness o f inspection, the State firstly should promulgate the regular on periodical testing and evaluating the standard o f labour inspector in order to have comprehensive understanding abourt the fact of labour inspector force than have plan to train and pro-train them the proffesional knowledge, especially knowlegde about gender equality and discrimination Besides that, it needs to enhance the cooperation between the relavant authorities with labour inspectors, especially the cooperation with the enterprise and trade union to timely and effectively related to the rights o f female labour arising in the enterprise The second, upgrade the knowlegde about law for female labour The low knowlegde about labour law o f female labour especialy o f female labour living in remote and less developed areas, due to many reasons and so upgrading their knowledge about law is necessary It need to make female labour undertanding precisely about labour law in order to selfprotect and legally request for reasonable rights and interests o f 46 their ow n The State should directly carry out propaganda and education o f law to fem ale labour or through mass media So, it is necessary to train a staff to take this activity w ith knowledge about law and professional skills Furtherm ore, this activity should adequately carry out and educate poor fem ale labour or female labour who is subject o f social policy (such as, invalid, handicap ) even to give them service without any fee Beside know ledge o f law, it is also necessary to supply them information about labour market To take part in labour market, the employee nowadays have to know and unstand m ore information, such as the supply o f job requirem ent o f job, wage, w orking condition, social security It is frequently more difficult for female labour then male labour to access and understand this inform ation due to they not have much time explore this inform ation from official and non official source The third, enhance the effectiveness o f activity o f the trade union, trade union is considered one o f the best effective ways by which the employee can participate in socio-economic activity The experience o f Sweden show that, Trade union good activities in the protection for employee in general and female labour in particular It shows that female labour w ill be better protected if they are not be lonely to "face up" with the em ployer in case that they are discriminately treated Moreover, Trade union is the one w ho proposes and supervises the plan for gender equality from the stage o f seting up and carrying out It reveals the great and vial role o f the Trade union in Sweden in protecting the rights o f female labour In the renovation (doim oi) years, the activity o f the Trade union in Vietnam has considerably been progressed The trade union effectively took the function o f carrying out propaganda and education about law to the employee and protecting them in market economy Especialy, its female Committee has taken many educational activities for female labour But, due to the difficulty in material condition the knowledge and professional skill of trade union staffs, especialy in market mechanism is not really high, the practical activity o f the trade union is not very effective The contribution o f trade union, moreover, to the drafting and building law on the right o f female labour is not very great The reasons for the negatives is the inadequate awareness about the role o f Trade union This situation requires more concern from the State to the organization and activity o f the trade union and the trade union itself should soon have solution and exert to though away their weak point One o f the foremost functions o f the trade union is the function o f protecting the reasonable rights and interests o f employee Beside that, it's need to concentrate on the quality and standard o f the trade union staff in the present market economy situation, expecialy the number o f female labour who is trade union staff should be increased The Trade union should be more boldly to propose to the State authority to amend or suplement the inadequate provisions on the rights o f female labour The trade union, furthermore, should cooperate with authority to carrry out the projects that coach the person who is or will father about family knowledge in order to help them comprehensively aware o f family duty and possitily share the burden o f housework with female labour The contribution and sharing the family duty o f the father ith the mother will make female labour and male labour harmonize their work and family In 47 the com ing time, it is also need to increase financial sources in order to help acts o f the Trade union become more independent The four, enhance the activity o f the Vietnamese Women Federation, especialy the activity o f the Committee for Women progress T he acts o f Vietnamese W omen Federation including the acts o f the C om m ittee for W omen progress should aim at improving ability and now ledge stardard every field for employee in general and female labour inparticular W ith the aim:90 Improving the understanding and awareness to obey the lines, policies, law o f the Communist Party and the State The acts aim at the target o f annualy having from 70%-80% o f female labour can access to and take part in the propaganda and educational activities o f the Federation The acts also aim at improving culture standard, professional skill for female labour in order to help them can find high-ranking job To gain these aim, the Women Federation o f all level should cooperate with C om m unist Party, authority, professional function branches and other organizations to effectively carry out propaganda and education about lines, policies, law o f Communist Party and State as well as the propaganda o f the Federation, International Convention on Women and female labour The Federation should also cooperation with the Ministry o f Justice and the Coucil for law propaganda and education to carry out propaganda and education about law to the female labour Concentrating to improve law know ledge and educate the awareness to obey the law The Federation should also positively propose to the State authority the subsidize policies in order to enable the female labour to improve their standard Besides that, the Federation effectively to carry out the activity that encourage and agitate them to actively study further to improve their knowledge professional skill, cultural standard and management ability as well x) Vietnamese Women Federation, Vietnamese women in step o f 21th century, National Political Publishing house, Hanoi 2002 p 48 Conclusion In the past years, the participation o f female labour to labour force has considerably increased and the rights o f female labour are quite wholly and progressively anknowledged in labour law and that has possitive effectives in the fields o f equality o f opportunity and treatment between fem ale labour and male labour in both Vietnamese and Sweden This positiveness will be more if suitable measures are built and implemented T he national labour policies should adequately take into account this requirem ent and should also have exertion to closely connect the issue o f the rights o f female labour to every general policy and especial concerns to their rights aiming at equality in working, treatment and job for everyone Though the position o f female in general and female labour inparticular nowadays have been possitively changed but the un equality, especialy in the field o f opportunity, treatment, employment, wage, social insurance is still exist Female labour, in fact have burden o f two duties: fam ily burden o f housework and job and they furthermore have to cope up w ith many dificulties in life This makes them become lack o f self-confident and under higher pressure than man in the situation o f changing technology, reorganizing and having changes in labour market The two important feature o f Swedish labour law largest diffirencies w ith Vietnamese labour law are the role o f social partners and the EU labour law influenced Sweden Swedish labour law is still characterised by the speical role designated to the social partners The Swedish labour market is characterised by a high degree o f organisation density; this is true o f employees and employers alike It is difficult to obtain exact figures on the degree o f affiliation, but it is roughly 85% percent among workers as well as among salaried, and there is relatively little inter-trade-union rivalry Another feature o f Swedish labour law is o f special importance as regards the implementation o f EC law Community directive often provide individual worker with minimum rights obliging M ember States to guarantee at all times the results imposed by the directive The technique one of "minimum" legislation in combination with semimandatory rules However, in these cases the law states explicitly that any collective agreement displacing the law must meet the standards o f the applicable directive.91 These features above contribute to equality between men and women in the labour market In the present socio-economic condition in Vietnam, the provisions on the rights of female labour are positive and most o f them comply with the International standards on the rights o f female labour The Vietnamese labour law also have provisions that give priority to enterprise using a great number of female labour in order to help enterprise and by which enable female labour to be equal with male labour However, beside the gained results, Vietnam should continue to implement some measures in order to complete the law on the rights of 1,1 Supra note 20, p 346 49 female labour and ensure the practical implementing ability o f the law on the rights o f female labour Due the limitation o f a thesis, I might not desire to explore detail and all issues that related to the rights o f female labour in Vietnam, I here, in this thesis, hopefully to generaly analyze their rights in the fields o f employment, wage, social insurance from comparative view with the provisions on Swedish labour law on the rights o f female labour M y final purpose is giving comparative reseach between the Vietnam ese labour law on the rights o f female labour (as said in the limitation o f this thesis) and give some proposals to complete and effectively implement the 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Transnational Publishers, Ins Dobbs Ferry, New York 23 M ichalel Bogdan, Swedish law in the new millennium, Printed in Sweden by Elanders Gotab, Stockholm 2000 24 N.Bruun, B.Flodgren, M.Halvorsen, H.Hydn and R.Nielsen, The Nordic labour relations model Labour Law and Trade Unions in the Nordic Countries - To day and Tomorrow, Dartmouth Publishing Company 1991 25 Ole Hasselbalch, Ruth Nielsen, Reinhold Fahlbeck, Kent Kallstrom, Torgeir Aarvaag Stokke, Orjan Edstrom, Jonas M alm berg, Lynn Roseberry, Tore Sigeman, Ann Numhauser-Henning, Ronnie Eklund, Anders von Koskull and Niklas Bruun, Stability and Change in Nordic Labour Law (Scandinavian Studies in Law Vol 43), Stability and Change in Nordic Labour Law 26 Prof.Dr.R.Blanpain, International Encyclopaedia f o r Labour Law and Industrial Relations Vol.l, Kluwer 2003 27 Samuel Engblom, Facuty o f Law - University o f Lund Social Security o f the Self-employed in Sweden - A Normative Analysis, M aster thesis, 1999 28 Sida, Swedish work and policies on Gender Equality, 1998 29 Sten Edlund and Birgitta Nystrom, Developments in Swedish Labour Law, Printed by Stellan Stals Tryckerier AB, Stockholm 1998 53 30 Swedish National M ediation office (2001, 2002,2003), English Repont 31 Sweden's Action plan fo r employment, 2003 I ll/ W ebsite: http://www.eurofound.eu.int http://www.scb.se http://worldfact.us/Vietnam.htm http://worldfact.us/Sweden.htm http://www.regeringen.se http://www.jur.lu.se http://www.sweden.se http://www.mi.se 54 Summary in ... about female labor's right in Vietnamese labour law and Swedish labour law Overview of female labour' s rights and the regulations of labour law 2.1 Concept of female labour' s rights and the meanings... labour' s rights 11 2.2.1 Vietnam 11 2.2.2 Sweden 15 THE ACTUAL SITUATION OF LABOUR LAW ON FEMALE LABOUR? ??S RIGHTS IN VIETNAM IN COMPARISON WITH SWEDISH LABOUR LAW 3.1 The rights of female labour in. .. o f female labour and children provided in International and domestic legal documents Here in, "Female labour rights under Vietnamese labour law in comparison with Swedish labour law" will provide