The National Assembly ratifies the Convention 105 on Abolition of  Forced Labour. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI – The National Assembly (NA) on Monday ratified Convention 105 on Abolition of Forced Labour with 94.82 per cent of NA deputies in agreement.

Việt Nam will apply all contents of Convention 105 which was endorsed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1957 in Geneva.

The Prime Minister will be responsible for organising its implementation and instruct central and local-level offices to complete a legal system for realising and disseminating the convention to people and businesses.

The Government will ask relevant offices to complete procedures of the convention accession and notify the date on which it comes into force in the country.

The NA and its Standing Committee, the Ethics Council and other committees will take responsibility for monitoring the convention’s implementation.

The NA’s External Affairs Committee’s chairman Nguyễn Văn Giàu said that most of the deputies agreed with the need for the convention which reflected the Party and State’s policy on reform and international integration.

The convention accession at this moment was suitable with the process of completing the market economic institution of Việt Nam and matched the national interest and the Party and State’s consistent policy in ensuring human rights and civil rights and not accepting forced labour exploitation, Giàu said.

Also, the contents of the convention do not contravene the provisions of Việt Nam’s constitution, laws, and resolutions and ordinances of the NA and NA Standing Committee (NASC), the chairman said.

The deputies recommended that the Government should study and promulgate legal documents detailing acts of forced labour which will be a significant legal basis for the convention’s implementation, he added.

The Labour Code in 2019 has many provisions on force labour control which are similar to the ILO guidelines.

For example, Article 17 stipulates that employers were prohibited from keeping original copies of personal documents and educational and occupation certificates of employees, require employees to take security measures by depositing money or other properties during performance of labour contracts, and force employees to perform labour contracts to pay debts for employers.

Meanwhile, the Penal Code in 2015 regulates crimes of forced labour and human trafficking of people under 16 for forced labour activities.

In terms of administrative sanctions for forced labour activities, Decree 28/2020/NĐ-CP dated March 1, 2020 by the Government sets fines on violations of labour, social insurance and sending Vietnamese people to work overseas.

On Monday, the ILO congratulated Việt Nam on its decision to ratify Convention 105 on the Abolition of Forced Labour.

The move will bring the total ILO fundamental conventions ratified by Việt Nam to seven out of eight. 

“Through this ratification, Việt Nam was demonstrating its firm commitment to combating forced labour in all its forms,” said ILO Director of International Labour Standards Department, Corrine Vargha.

“This ratification is all the more important since the ILO’s global estimates show the urgency of adopting immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour,” said Vargha. 

“Moreover, by ratifying the Convention, Việt Nam is moving towards the achievement of decent work and the delivering at the country-level of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG target 8.7,” she added.

Forced labour can be understood as work that is performed involuntarily and under the menace of any penalty.

It refers to situations in which persons are coerced to work through the use of violence or intimidation, or by more subtle means such as manipulated debt, retention of identity papers or threats of denunciation to immigration authorities.

Forced labour degrades human dignity and denies the worker the ability to pursue material well-being and spiritual development based on free will.

The prevention and combat against the use of forced labour in enterprises helps them avoid the risks of their products being rejected or boycotted by importing countries.

The non-use of forced labour in the production of goods or services is also considered the “laissez-passer” for the goods and services to get access to global markets.

“The Government and social partners have been making consistent efforts in bettering its legal framework to pave the way for Việt Nam to move towards an upper-middle income country in a sustainable manner,” said ILO Việt Nam Director, Chang-Hee Lee.

The ILO has eight core conventions, covering four key areas namely freedom of association and collective bargaining, forced labour, discrimination, and child labour. – VNS