Definitive Report - Report No 96, 1967

Case No 483 (Viet Nam) - Complaint date: 14-MAY-66 - Closed

1. 15. The allegations made by the Viet-Nam Labour Union are contained in three communications dated 14 May, 1 June and 12 July 1966. The texts of these communications having been transmitted to the Government for its observations, the latter replied in a communication dated 4 January 1967.
2. 16. Viet-Nam has not ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), but has ratified the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

• Allegations relating to Shots Fired at Vietnamese Workers
  17. 17 The complainants allege that on 10 May 1966, following a bombing incident near buildings occupied by American military personnel, the American police opened fire on the crowd, killing five and wounding 21 workers on their way to work. The complainants add that, in a statement made on 11 May 1966, the United States representative at Saigon recognised the responsibility of the American Forces in the circumstances.
  18. 18 In its observations the Government states that shooting did in fact break out immediately after a Viet-Cong act of sabotage against the buildings inhabited by the American military personnel. It indicates that the American Mission officially recognised the American Military Police's share in responsibility for the shooting which followed the explosion, and that a joint Viet-Nam/American committee gave the victims compensation assessed in the best interests of the persons injured.
  19. 19 It is clear that the incidents mentioned above, on the course of which the complainants and the Government give versions which agree, bear no relationship to the exercise of trade union rights.
  20. 20 The Committee therefore recommends the Governing Body to decide that this aspect of the case does not call for further examination.
• Allegations concerning the Murder of a Vietnamese Worker
  21. 21 The complainants allege that on 6 May 1966 a Vietnamese carpenter was killed by rifle shots in his working yard at Cam-Rahn, where 4,000 workers of the Raymond Morrison Knudsen Company are employed. " The cause of this crime ", state the complainants, " has not been elucidated, although the employer recognised that the murder was committed by a member of the American Police Force ".
  22. 22 In the course of the funeral ceremony, continue the complainants, at which the Regional Inspector of Labour was present, a representative of the employer handed to the father of the victim a sum collected by voluntary subscription from the latter's fellow workers. On the other hand, say the complainants, no compensation was given by the employer and the murderer has remained unpunished.
  23. 23 In its reply the Government states that as a result of arguments which arose between a group of 47 workers in the Cam-Rahn yard and the Philippine overseer about the calculation of the number of hours of work done, the workers in question started a go-slow strike. It would appear that this resulted in a certain amount of agitation at the works which apparently caused the American security forces of the airport to intervene and send 30 police to the premises. These police, the Government states, searched the premises and regrouped the workers taking part in the movement in order to make them leave. At that point a carpenter employed in the yard came running out of a washroom; a sergeant gave him the order to stop-an order which was doubtless not heard by the man concerned. After three summonses, seeing that his order was not obeyed and believing that an attempt was being made to escape, the sergeant fired, killing the carpenter instantly.
  24. 24 The Government states that an inquiry was carried out and a delegation of the Ministry of Labour which visited the premises took charge of the matter. The Company paid the next-of-kin of the victim an indemnity in conformity with Vietnamese labour legislation and equivalent to 13 months' pay; to that indemnity were added the proceeds of a collection taken among the fellow workers of the victim. Further, on the intervention of the Vietnamese authorities, it was possible to give the next-of-kin of the victim priority for employment in various jobs expressly reserved for them by the Company.
  25. 25 Here again, however regrettable, the death of the person concerned seems to have had an exclusively accidental cause, and, in any case, not to have been connected with the exercise of trade union rights.
  26. 26 The Committee consequently recommends the Governing Body to decide that this aspect of the case does not call for further examination.
• Allegations concerning Obstacles to Freedom of Association and Infringement of the Labour Code by Foreign Employers in Viet-Nam
  27. 27 The complainants allege that foreign employers, and in particular the Raymond Morrison Knudsen-Brown Rootes Jones (RMK-BRJ) Company, refuse to conform to Vietnamese labour legislation.
  28. 28 According to the complainants, persons wishing to work for the RMK-BRJ Company have to pay in advance to its recruiting agents a sum equivalent to from 15 days' to a month's pay; the working week is 70 hours; the wage rates are fixed by taking into account not only professional competence but also the nationality of those concerned; family benefits and health insurance do not exist; wage earners recruited locally have no guarantee and can be dismissed at any time without notice or compensation; the right of making claims and taking part in collective bargaining does not exist, which is all the more serious when it is remembered that in view of the special situation in South Viet-Nam the right to strike has been suspended sine die; workers who are members of trade unions or suspected of having relations with the trade unions are threatened with losing their jobs; they are, moreover, put under the control of a special service formed and armed by the Company, which attempts to exclude any trade union activity or other action considered to be against the interests of the Company; finally, in certain strategic bases, the workers cannot leave the precincts of the works without the permission of the security services.
  29. 29 With regard to these allegations, the Government makes the following observations. There are in Viet-Nam 219 foreign undertakings, employing altogether 10,806 foreign workers and 116,492 Vietnamese workers, 28 of those undertakings being American firms employing 50,200 Vietnamese workers. Of these, the Raymond Morrison Knudsen Company, which is responsible for carrying out large-scale national defence works for the military command, alone employs 43,636 workers of all nationalities including 34,824 Vietnamese workers in some 33 construction works throughout the country.
  30. 30 Under the Viet-Nam Labour Code, states the Government, any undertaking established in Viet-Nam must submit to Vietnamese laws and regulations. Periodically, the Government continues, in addition to control by the local labour service, a delegation of the Ministry of Labour goes through the various working premises of the Company to look into the workers' conditions of work, see how labour legislation is being applied, hear the workers' complaints and grievances, settle any disputes on the spot and communicate to the employer such suggestions and recommendations as may be advisable with a view to improving the well-being of the employees.
  31. 31 In each locality, continues the Government, the recruitment of Vietnamese staff employed in foreign firms is the responsibility of the provincial committee for the selection of manpower, of which the chairman is the president of the province, and which is composed of representatives of the provincial labour inspectorate, the Ministry of Rural Development, military security, national security, the regional administration of the place where the works are situated, and the management of the firm concerned. Further, the Government states, in the case of the RMK-BRJ Company, it should be pointed out that there was a joint communiqué signed on 7 September 1966 by the Minister of Labour and the Director-General of the Company with a view to ensuring that Vietnamese labour continues to be employed and foreign specialist workers are progressively replaced by Vietnamese specialists with equivalent technical qualifications.
  32. 32 The Government states that, as regards conditions of work (in particular an eight-hour day for effective work, i.e. 48 hours per week, with a 50 per cent increase in pay for overtime, Sundays and public holidays), health and safety, family benefits and the other forms of social security, foreign firms are subject to the control of the provincial labour inspectors. As regards the dismissal of workers, that must be done in conformity with the labour laws and regulations.
  33. 33 The Government goes on to state that the scale of wages applied by the RMK-BRJ Company is " in all points superior to the guaranteed minimum wage rate fixed annually in accordance with the provisions of section 110 of the Labour Code ".
  34. 34 As regards the representation of workers in the undertaking the Government indicates that the Company organised elections of staff representatives in works where more than 50 wage earners are habitually employed; the five most important works have already elected staff representatives in accordance with the procedures stipulated in the regulations.
  35. 35 The Government then states that Legislative Decree No. 19 of 24 October 1964 embodied the principle of freedom of association and established the new régime of occupational trade unions. The trade union movement in Viet-Nam has developed rapidly in all sectors of the economy, the number of trade unions having risen from 531 in 1960 to 687 at the end of November 1966, and the three national Confederations together comprise some 600,000 workers. The Government affirms that its policy in these matters is to promote the development of the trade union movement, to encourage the conclusion of collective agreements and to intensify the programme for the training of staff representatives and education of the workers.
  36. 36 As regards the control formalities affecting the workers at the works the Government points out that such control in establishments connected with national defence is in existing circumstances entirely natural; it is in no way vexatious or in the least derogatory of human dignity.
  37. 37 The Committee notes that in reply to the detailed allegations made by the complainants the Government gives full explanations.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 38. In these circumstances the Committee recommends the Governing Body to decide that this aspect of the case, and thus the case as a whole, does not call for further examination.