Industrial park workers struggle

July 11, 2014 | 08:31

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Workers at industrial parks in HCM City continue to face difficulties in accommodations, income, education and health services for their children, a city official has said.

HCM City workers eat a meal in their shared rental apartment. Substandard accomodations are among the major difficulties that workers at industrial zones in HCM City face. Photo evn.com.vn

Nguyen Vo Minh Thu, head of the labour affairs division of the HCM City Export Processing and Industrial Zone Authority, said many employees were looking for work because of staff cuts.

In addition, many enterprises have not paid social insurance payments to the State fund for one to three months, and a lot of workers have not received unemployment insurance payments.

According to a survey of the Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour, at least 2.1 million people are employed at industrial parks, and of that figure, 70 per cent are from other provinces and cities.

Only 10 per cent of them live in apartments built by the State or their enterprises. The remaining 90 per cent have to rent substandard rooms in residential areas near their workplace.

In HCM City, there are 15 industrial parks and export processing zones with around 300,000 workers, Thu spoke at a round-table discussion held on Wednesday by the Institute of Workers and Trade Union of the Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour in HCM City.

In a related matter, Nguyen Thi Gai, vice chairwoman of the union of the Department of Education and Training, said at the roundtable that teachers at many private schools were also suffering because they had not received preferential policies.

Teachers at most private schools are paid for nine months only, unlike public school teachers who receive a salary for 12 months, even though they do not work during the summer.

VNS

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