English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

A Gendered and Rights-Based Review of Vietnamese Legal Documents through the Lens of CEDAW
VII.Transferring Women Labourers from Jobs Banned to Women Labour to Suitable
Jobs
In the transfer of women labour from the jobs banned to women labour to other and
suitable jobs under Article 11 of Decree No.23-CP of April 18, 1996 of the Government
the enterprise shall have to undertake the following:
1. To inventorize and classify the women labourers who are doing jobs banned to
women labour (see Form No.3 attached to this Circular).
2. To draw up a plan to move this women workforce to other and suitable jobs. In case
the enterprise is meeting with financial difficulties and is qualified for the policy of
package financial support from the National Fund for Employment, the provisions in
Clause 2, Section V of this Circular shall apply.
3. While drawing up its plan, the enterprise must carry out immediately a number of
measures stipulated in Inter-ministerial Circular No.03/TT-LB of January 28, 1994 of
the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Health in order
to arrange an appropriate work timetable for the women labourers so that they might
learn a trade and familiarize themselves with the new job.
Third, the Decree on Labour Violations provides the penalty for employing female
labourers in heavy or hazardous jobs, or jobs in contact with noxious matters (in Article 113
and Clause 3 of Article 124 of the Labour Code), is a fine of VND 1 million to VND 5 million. 470
Fourth, to protect the health, reproductive and nursing functions of female workers,
based in the working conditions of each profession, MOLISA and MOH issued an interministerial
circular, Circular NO. 03/TT-LD, which identified the occupations and conditions in
which women are not allowed to work. 471 A total of 83 occupations (as per the list attached to
the circular) are off limits to women and pregnant or nursing women. Further, women are
prohibited from working in the following eight harmful working conditions: (a) places where air
pressure is higher than atmospheric pressure; (b) inside pits; (c) high and dangerous places;
(d) places not suitable for women’s ‘mentality and psychology’; (e) work constantly done in
water or contaminated water with high risks of infection; (f) exhausting labour; (g) in contact
with radioactive substances; and (h) in direct contact with chemicals that can alter gene
structure. Five harmful working conditions were identified as unfit for pregnant or breastfeeding
women.
Article 113 of the Labour Code and its supplementing documents must be reviewed.
They are in the nature of protective legislation restricting women’s right to work. Unless
appropriate occupational health and safety standards or a safe working environment specific
to each job/profession are in place, employers must not hire or assign either men or women
to heavy or dangerous work or work requiring contact with toxic substances, including
substances that affect their capacity to bear children. However, in the case of Viet Nam, the
‘protection’ is only extended to women; and, hence, restrictions to the right to work is only
applicable to women as well. Many justify this, without sufficient basis in biology, as women
being unable to perform tasks due to their weak constitution. It is doubtful that women are
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470
Decree on Labour Violations, Article 15(1)(e)
471
Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Report, p. 18
Employment (Article 11 of CEDAW)