Definitive Report - Report No 103, 1968

1. 80. The complaints of the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions and of the Brotherhood of Asian Trade Unionists are contained in two communications dated 18 and 19 January 1968 respectively; by a communication dated 22 January 1968 the Brotherhood of Asian Trade Unionists furnished further information on the matter. The text of these communications was sent to the Government, which sent its observations on them by a letter dated 1 February 1968.
2. 81. Viet-Nam has not ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), but it has ratified the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 82. The complainants allege that when the Government failed to keep the promise it had made to the workers of the electricity and water company to raise their salaries by 12 per cent, the trade union of the workers concerned decided to ask its General Secretary to negotiate with the Minister of Labour in order to make sure that the promise was honoured. The complainants allege that the General Secretary was arrested when he went to see the Minister.
2. 83. As a retort to this action on the part of the Government, the workers went on strike and were supported by a vast movement of solidarity which led to a police attack on the central headquarters of the Vietnamese Federation of Workers and to the arrest of its leaders on 13 January 1968.
3. 84. In its observations the Government indicates that the strike of the workers of the National Electricity Company ended on 17 January 1968. It also states that the trade union representatives were not arrested during the conciliation meeting but that they were provisionally detained by the security services after this meeting for infringement of the law prohibiting strikes during the state of emergency. The Government states finally that the six representatives detained were released on 18 January 1968.
4. 85. For its part, the Brotherhood of Asian Trade Unionists, one of the complainants in the case, confirms in a telegram dated 22 January 1968 that the trade unionists detained have been released.