HCM City (VNA) – A consultation workshop on thedraft dossier for the accession to the Minimum Wage Fixing Convention 1970 (Convention 13) of the International Labour Organization (ILO) was held in HoChi Minh City on November 15.
Jointly organised by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and SocialAffairs (MoLISA) and the ILO, the two-day event is offering a forum for wage andlabour experts, representatives of employees and relevant agencies in southernlocalities to discuss minimum wage issues for workers.
Addressingthe event, Mai Duc Thien, deputy head of MoLISA’s LegalDepartment, briefed participants on the daft dossier, and emphasised thesignificance of Convention 131 and the obligations of its member countries.
PromotingVietnam’s access to Convention 131 represents a new step towards ensuring adecent standard of living for labourers and establishing a fair working environmentin line with international labour standards, Thien said.
Nguyen Thanh Mai from the same department said Vietnam’s accession tothe convention aims to ensure a minimum living standard for laborers and theirfamilies, contributing to addressing income inequality among labourers, minimisingwage-related disputes, and increasing labour productivity.
Additionally, adhering to international labour standards will help improve the competitivenessof Vietnamese goods in demanding international markets, thus addressing labour-relatedbarriers and facilitating exports, she said.
Accordingto Xavier Estupinan Gonzalo, a wage expert from the ILO, minimum wage systemshave been established in many countries to address issues of poverty and labourinequality, contributing to ensuring sustainable social security development.
The minimum wage must be adequate to provide protection for allworkers in employment relationships, including women, youth, and migrant labourers,regardless of the types of contract they have agreed upon, he said.
Delegatesdiscussed contents of Convention 131 and proposed principlesand mechanisms for adjusting the minimum wage, criteria for determining theminimum wage, measures to apply regulations on minimum wages, and relevantinternational experience./.
