Our tripartite partners — the MoLISA, VCCI, and VGCL — have extended their support throughout the ten years history of the programme. As the industry has developed over the past decade, Better Work Vietnam has supported garment and textile factories to improve profitability, competitiveness and working conditions.

In the next decade of operation, it is crucial for Better Work Vietnam to continue its work in a more sustainable way in an effort to help create more and better jobs in this fast-growing industry.

Key Improvements

♦ Minimum wages have nearly tripled since 2011, and almost all of the factories in the programme have paid workers equal or higher than the minimum wage.
♦ Strengthened social dialogue through the introduction of worker-management committees. In 2012, this initiative was designed after the labour code made bipartite dialogue mandatory.
♦ The average factory enrolled in the programme experienced an increase in profitability of 25% after four years.
♦ Factories that invest in supervisory skill training for female supervisors have seen productivity increase by 22%.

Significant Achievements in a Sample of 50 Factories Working With Better Work for Over Eight Years

♦ We have trained workers and managers on the importance of workers’ representation. Management interference in union decision-making processes has dropped from 74% to 4%.
♦ Factories with a longer-term engagement with our team and with close partnerships with brands have seen a significant decrease noncompliance rates in violations of overtime limits from 92% to 67%.
♦ We have supported factories enrolling their eligible workers into compulsory social insurance schemes, allowing entitlement to maternity leave, sick leave, and unemployment benefits. Noncompliance with social insurance schemes decreased from 18% to 6%.

Sustaining Impact Through Building Bridges Programme

The ‘Building Bridges’ programme, an initiative which allows Better Work and its partners to create a new vision for change in the garment industry and beyond, has three tangible benefits:

♦ The programme has created a forum for tripartite officials, who are representatives from central and provincial DOLISA, labour federations, and employers’ associations to join together to discuss shared interests.
♦ The programme has given participants practical tools related to facilitation, communication, negotiation, problem-solving, teamwork and action plans.
♦ Participants now have a deeper understanding of the Better Work approach and how it helps Vietnam be more competitive in the global market.

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