Increasing Workplace Compliance through Labour Inspection For many years now, the ILO has been working alongside the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) in Viet Nam to help strengthen its ability to secure labour law compliance for working men and women. The ILO has pursued a variety of approaches towards this goal, whether through assistance for a more effective labour inspection system, improved prevention of occupational accidents and diseases, the eradication of child labour, sectoral compliance approaches using public/private partnerships, or through industrial relations at the enterprise level to empower the social partners to negotiate for decent working conditions. Recently in 2012, at MOLISA’s request, the ILO was invited to carry out a needs assessment of Viet Nam’s labour inspection system (LIS) and overall compliance strategy. The subsequent report identified several areas for improvement that could broaden the impact of the LIS towards application of the labour law. The report includes 10 recommendations, highlighting areas where the ILO could be of direct assistance, including through improved advisory and preventive services as well as deeper collaboration with the social partners. The report also refers to a number of complementary ILO initiatives taking place in the country that are strongly connected to the application of national labour laws and workplace compliance. Following the endorsement and publication of the needs assessment, MOLISA prepared a draft Master Plan for building the capacity of its labour inspection system (2012-2020), drawing on the assessment and related MOLISA priorities. Among other issues, the Master Plan emphasized the need to: • strengthen the labour inspection organization structure and staff allocation; • develop a capacity building system for labour inspectors; • reform its compliance methodologies, tools and operations; and • reinforce its management information system. Given the long term vision set out in this Plan, the ILO considers that the time is right to propose a comprehensive workplace compliance programme for Viet Nam that not only supports the objectives of MOLISA’s Master Plan but also integrates and builds on the complementary work of several ILO projects, while deepening collaboration with the social partners at the enterprise level. The genesis of this proposed project is not only grounded in the recent needs assessment and Master Plan. It also embodies one of the ILO’s new Areas of Critical Importance (ACI), namely strengthening workplace compliance, as well as reflecting recent ILO institutional reforms that have brought about the creation of a Governance and Tripartism Department. This new Department brings together expertise from across the ILO in the areas of labour administration and inspection, OSH, social dialogue, labour law and reform, fundamental principles and rights, and public/private compliance. Together, these technical areas achieve a critical mass of expertise and experience on a variety of aspects in the area of workplace compliance. As such, the proposed project offers a proving ground for the benefits that integrated ILO technical advisory services can bring on an issue of strategic significance to ILO constituents.