Ho Chi Minh City issues support for workers impacted by COVID-19

Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (DLISA) on March 27 issued a document detailing the payment and other incentives for employees who are forced to temporarily stop working due to the COVID-19.

Workersin Ho Chi Minh City will be paid the wage support if they cannot work because of COVID-19 (Photo:mt.gov.vn)

The above earnings band is based on Article 98(3) of the Labour Code which stipulated that wages paid for workers cannot be lower than the minimum wage of the region regulated by the government.

According to current regulations, the regional minimum wage in Ho Chi Minh City’s Region 1, including the central districts and Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh and Nha Be, is VND 4.4 million ($190) per month. The Region 2 wage applied for Can Gio district is VND3.9 million ($170).

Apart from that, DLISA also instructed that for enterprises suffering from a shortage of raw material sources and markets and which cannot operate at full capacity, employees may be temporarily transferred to other jobs for a set duration of time.

Previously, Ho Chi Minh City Party Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan said that the city Committee will pledge to use half of the additional income (besides official salary) of the city’s civil servants to subsidise workers who are forced to stop working. It is estimated that this sum would be enough to subsidise VND1million ($43.48) per person per month for around 600,000 workers.

Meanwhile, the Education Labor branch of the Ho Chi Minh City Labour Union also recently issued Plan No.038 to support workers in the education system who are impacted by COVID-19.

According to this plan, every teacher who is impacted by COVID-19 will be supported with VND1.2 million ($52.20). Eligible persons for this support will be female teachers who are pregnant or having a child under one year of age and teachers who are suffering from fatal diseases.

Since this January, COVID-19 has been exerting serious impacts on enterprises and the lives of people. Many enterprises were required to reduce their capacity or stop manufacturing and trading, leaving many workers jobless.

According to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, around three million workers and 200,000 enterprises are impacted by COVID-19.