THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS IN SAFEGUARDING THE RIGHTS OF MIGRANT WORKERS IN VIETNAM

Minh-Trang Doan

Abstract


This article scrutinises the status quo regarding the protection of migrant workers' rights within Vietnam, set against the backdrop of accelerated industrialisation and urbanisation. Notwithstanding the fact that the current legal framework (inter alia, the Labour Code, the Law on Trade Unions) has enshrined the principle of equality, in practice, the migrant workforce continues to confront a plethora of perils regarding legal status, social security, and working conditions. This research delves into the pivotal role of Trade Unions, whilst simultaneously identifying the challenges posed to the Trade Union organisation in guaranteeing the rights of migrant workers. Consequently, the article proposes a comprehensive set of holistic measures aimed at perfecting the legal mechanism, enhancing the capacity of trade unionists, and fortifying international network linkages to safeguard the rights of migrant workers in an effective and sustainable manner.

 

Article visualizations:

Hit counter


Keywords


trade unions, right of migrant workers, Labour Code, Law on Trade Unions, Vietnam, social security

Full Text:

PDF

References


Al-Ani, A., & Stumpp, S. (2016). Rebalancing interests and power structures on crowdworking platforms. Internet Policy Review, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.14763/2016.2.415

Asmorojati, A. W., Nur, M., Dewi, I. K., & Hashim, H. binti M. (2022). The Impact of COVID-19 on Challenges and Protection Practices of Migrant Workers’ Rights. BESTUUR, 10(1), 43. https://doi.org/10.20961/bestuur.v10i1.60179

Benach, J., Muntaner, C., Delclós, C., Menéndez, M., & Ronquillo, C. (2011). Migration and “Low-Skilled” Workers in Destination Countries. PLoS Medicine, 8(6). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001043

Bortnyk, N., Didkivska, G., & Tylchyk, V. (2018). The Impact of International Labour Migration on the Development of States under Globalization: Economic and Legal Aspects. Baltic Journal of Economic Studies, 4(2), 47. https://doi.org/10.30525/2256-0742/2018-4-2-47-52

Consular Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (2024). Vietnam migration profile 2023.

Darçın, M., Darçın, E. S., Alkan, M., & Dogrul, G. (2018). Accidents involving migrant seasonal agricultural worker. Biomedical Research - India, 29(7). https://doi.org/10.4066/biomedicalresearch.29-18-149

Degani, P. (2022). Domestic/Care Work and Severe Exploitation. The Limits of Italian Migrant Regularization Schemes. Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2022.818351

Hung, P.-C., Lee, H., Lin, C., & Liu, W. (2022). Promoting human rights for Taiwan’s fishermen: Collaboration with the primary source countries of Taiwan’s DWF migrant fishermen. Frontiers in Marine Science, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.1097378

Karatani, R. (2014). Female Domestic Workers on the Move: Examining Global Householding and Global De-Householding in Today’s World. In Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks (p. 137). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-40360-5_8

Radka, K., Wyeth, E., Craik, B., Ergler, C. R., & Derrett, S. (2024). “On the books” yet “off the record”-occupational injury and migrant women: scoping review findings from OECD countries, with implications for New Zealand. Frontiers in Global Women s Health, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgwh.2024.1346834

Ryan, B., & Mantouvalou, V. (2014). The Labour and Social Rights of Migrants in International Law. In Oxford University Press eBooks (p. 177). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198701170.003.0006

USA, Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. Available at: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/1802 [Accessed 20 Oct. 2025].

Rydzik, A., & Anitha, S. (2019). Conceptualising the Agency of Migrant Women Workers: Resilience, Reworking and Resistance. Work Employment and Society, 34(5), 883. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017019881939

Schwarzer, B., Kämmerer-Rütten, U., Schleyer‐Lindenmann, A., & Yf, W. (2016). Transnational Social Work and Social Welfare. HAL (Le Centre Pour La Communication Scientifique Directe). https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03553187

Tran, H. V. (2020). Strikes in Foreign Direct Investment Enterprises in the Southern Key Economic Region of Vietnam. International Journal of Financial Research, 11(5), 79. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijfr.v11n5p79

Vendryes, T., & Zhan, J. (2023). Hukou-Based Discrimination, Dialects and City Characteristics. HAL (Le Centre Pour La Communication Scientifique Directe). https://hal.science/hal-04247417

Venturi, E. (2018). Obstacles and Opportunities in Africa for the Ratification of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). https://doi.org/10.17615/sf83-cz37

Wu, T. (2010). Governing work by law ? : the action space of Chinese employees and the trade union’s role in enterprises. HAL (Le Centre Pour La Communication Scientifique Directe). https://theses.hal.science/tel-00572907




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v12i12.6443

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2025 Minh-Trang Doan

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright © 2015-2026. European Journal of Education Studies (ISSN 2501 - 1111) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library (Biblioteca Nationala a Romaniei). All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All authors who send their manuscripts to this journal and whose articles are published on this journal retain full copyright of their articles. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).