The National Assembly’s Standing Committee Wednedsay considered giving one more day off for the Tet, or Lunar New Year, holiday as it discussed the Labor Code and the Law on Trade Union.

Visitors on the Nguyen Hue Flower Street in Ho Chi Minh City on the last Tet holidays

NA’s Deputy Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said the proposal might be passed as the number of national holidays in Vietnam is lower than that of other countries in the region.

Regarding maternal leave, many deputies agreed that the leave should be at least 4 months and 6 months at most and that women should be entitled to choose how long they want to leave within this limit.

On the retirement age, most deputies said it should be 60 for both men and women but women should be entitled to decide whether they want to retire earlier at 55.

Discussing overtime work, many delegates agreed that it should not exceed 30 hours per month and that in case employees take many consecutive days of overtime work, they must be arranged for days off later.

As for the Law on Trade Union, the deputies said the operating mechanism of trade unions should be renovated and their legal status should be clarified so that they could better protect employees’ rights and interests.

Phan Trung Ly, Chairman of the NA’s Law Committee said among the 5,000 strikes that have occurred so far this year, none was led by a trade union.

Under the current law, a labor dispute must be reconciled first and if reconcilement fails, the problem will be settled by an arbitration council, and if it is still not settled, a relevant trade union can lead a strike, said Mai Duc Chinh, Deputy Chairman of the Vietnam Labor Confederation.

But he said in fact, a strike usually occurs right after a failed reconcilement and doesn’t wait to be settled through the other two steps.

Ly said such a strike is usually considered “unlawful” now, which means that the process of organization a strike should be reviewed.

This issue, however, has yet to be addressed in the amendments, Ly said.