Ho Chi Minh Thought on labor and social security

Implication

In a letter sent to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Nguyen Ai Quoc, pen name of President Ho Chi Minh, claimed for the Vietnamese people the right of self-determination, the right to assembly, the right to learn, and the right to establish professional and technical schools.

The Tan Trao National People’s Congress of the Viet Minh League in August 1945 approved the guidelines of the Indochinese Communist Party and the Viet Minh League to launch an uprising and adopted a series of important policies including an 8-hour work day, a minimum wage, and social insurance mechanisms.  

Following the success of the August Revolution, the Vietnamese government council, at its first meeting on September 3, 1945, adopted a micro-credit policy to help farmers, fight illiteracy, and support the people. The government led by President Ho Chi Minh, laid a foundation for a labor and social security policy by issuing Decree 29 in 1947 stipulating work transaction regulations between employers and employees.

The Decree includes articles on child protection from labor abuse, vocational training, minimum wage, and labor inspection. The Decree laid a foundation for fundamental principles in the current Code of Labor.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said “President Ho Chi Minh’s legacy is profound and comprehensive. His thought on labor and social security emphasizes the need to ensure the people’s right to freedom and mastery, a job, vocational training, capacity building, a decent wage, a decent material and spiritual life, labor safety, and a stable, harmonious labor relationship. These are the standards of international labor today.”

The 1947 Decree recognized workers’ rights to hold meeting, bargain collectively, and go out on strike. The Decree was made before the International Labor Organization released the Convention on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining (Convention 98, 1949) and the Convention on the Right to Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize (Convention 87, 1948).

The Vietnamese National Assembly ratified Convention 98 in June this year and is expected to adopt Convention 87 in 2023. Director of the ILO in Vietnam Chang Hee Lee said that the two Conventions are similar to President Ho Chi Minh’s ideas in 1919 and laws and policies that he prepared in 1947 and after independence and now well incorporated with the Party Resolution 27 in 2018 on wages.

Ho Chi Minh Thought on labor and social security promoted

In the context of Vietnam’s rapid international economic integration, Ho Chi Minh Thought on labor and social security will continue to ensure inclusive growth that leaves no one behind.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said “The Vietnamese government considers developing human resources and creating sustainable work an important prerequisite for the socialist-oriented market economy. Vietnam will take advantage of its golden population period to promote sustainable development that makes people the center and leaves no one behind.”  

The Vietnamese government is aware that improving social security and social welfare are the keys to rapid and sustainable development.