Employment law, changes to constitution on the agenda

As planned, the NA Standing Committee will discuss the draft Resolution on amendments of Constitution 1992, draft Resolution on collecting people’s ideas on the revised Constitution and another draft resolution on the procedure of casting votes of confidence on key posts elected or approved by the NA and local People’s Councils. NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung said the session was an important preparation step for the 4th meeting of the 13th NA tenure, slated from October 20.

The committee will also deliberate on the Government’s reports including the one on socio-economic development and estimated State budget in 2012, a similar plan for 2013 and five draft laws.

The draft Employment Law was the first one to be discussed at the session yesterday.

The committee heard that although the country already has a number of laws and legal documents that govern employment, some newly-arisen issues required a separate law.

Under the draft, the law will cover both formal and informal jobs, free-lancers, the self-employed and jobs performed in the country and abroad.

The draft regulates seven major groups of employment: job development, labour market information, labour force management, vocational skills development, job services, recruitment and insurance.

The draft law is applicable to three different groups: Vietnamese citizens aged 15 or older, foreign labourers working in Viet Nam and job-related agencies or employers.

Chairman of the NA Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Adolescent Dao Trong Thi and Chairman of the Committee for Finance and Budget Phung Quoc Hien agreed that since the draft law involved various legal documents, there should be a review to make sure they were all consistent.

Some deputies said the draft law should focus on formal and informal labourers "because guest workers are governed by a separate law and foreign workers are regulated in the Labour Code".

The committee continued their discussion today.