Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – A conference took place in Hanoion September 11 to collect social opinions on the revised Labour Code draftfrom the angle of gender equality.
Based on the fact that female employees are having lowerincomes compared to their male peers of the same profession, educational level,and geographical location, participants recommended the draft include aregulation on setting up a legal framework for gender equality to handle thegap.
Dang Nhu Loi, former deputy head of the National AssemblyCommittee for Social Affairs, said when difficulties arise, employers from theprivate sector, particularly foreign-invested firms, tend to end labourcontracts or fire workers rather than working on reusing the workers for otheroccupations and improving working environment.
It causes harmful impact on employees and a burden for boththe Government and society, he added, noting that the draft, however, does not regulatesuch issue.
Some delegates pointed to the current regulation thatforbids employers from using seven-month pregnant workers (or six-month ones inmountainous, remote, or island areas) for night shifts, extra working hours, orbusiness trips to faraway places.
They were against a change made to the regulation bydrafters of the revised code which states that employers cannot do such thingsmentioned above without acceptance from the workers.
Delegates said employers can take advantage of the flexiblecontent or persuade the pregnant women to accept the job that can inflictnegative consequences on their health.
Tran Thi Huong, a worker at the Ha Long Canned Food JointStock Corporation, said the draft regulation on increasing retirement ages forboth sexes ought to be specific for each sector.
The newly proposed regulation on cutting working hours from48 to 44 hours per week also faced disagreement from many enterprises who arguedthat 48 hours a week is a standard in Vietnam’s competitors in terms of laboursources like Thailand and India. They said the reduction is likely to weakerthe country’s competitiveness and pose risks of bankruptcy to businesses.-VNA
VNA
