The scheme is acontinuation of the project “Strengthening the role of workers and tradeunions” which was implemented from 2009-2011 by the Institute forEuropean Studies and the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour(VGCL) with assistance from the European Union.
The newproject will run for 30 months starting from January 2013, and isexpected to make it easier for workers to access legal advice andimprove the capacity of advisors through setting up trade union legalconsultation centres in Hanoi and the northern provinces of VinhPhuc and Hai Duong.
Vietnam has more than 7.5 million tradeunion members and over 110,000 grassroots trade unions from alleconomic sectors.
The country is undergoing rapidindustrialisation, with a large number of workers working inforeign-invested factories under austere conditions with no regard totheir legal rights.
The project will help improve theeffectiveness of studies so as to grasp the workforce’s needs andstatus, provide technical assistance for legal consultancy at aprovincial level, and increase the VGCL’s role in policy discussions toraise a voice for the labour force, said Professor Pietro P. Masina fromthe Naples University L’Orientale, who is the project coordinator.-VNA