Ensuring the Right to Equality and Non-discrimination in Labor

The right to equality and non-discrimination in labor is recognized in many international legal documents and national legislation. However, in Vietnam, the implementation of laws ensuring the right to equality and non-discrimination in labor is often applied unequally between genders, and tends to prioritize the protection of female employees, recognizing additional rights for female employees, especially during pregnancy and raising children under 12 months. This interpretation has led to the existence of inequality within the very provisions of labor laws. Moreover, the definition of protected characteristics against discrimination remains unclear. This article clarifies the concept of the right to equality and non-discrimination in the workplace and analyzes signs of inequality and discrimination as grounds for identifying violations of workers’ rights. Moreover, this paper examines the content of legal doctrine and assesses the practical implementation of the right to equality and non-discrimination in Vietnam through the application of analysis, synthesis, legal comparison, and statistical analysis. The article identifies limitations of the current Vietnamese legal framework and proposes solutions to improve labor laws. These include providing specific guidance on the protected characteristics against discrimination, adding new protected characteristics to reflect current realities, and clarifying the employer’s right to request information from employees to prevent discriminatory practices. The article also discusses solutions for effectively enforcing the right to equality and non-discrimination in employment. These include providing guidance on the development of internal policies by employers to promote equality and prevent discrimination in the workplace, as well as strengthening the capacity of leaders of grassroots-level workers’ representative organizations. Keywords: Discrimination, Equality, Labor, Law, and Vietnam.