Striking back to stop labour unrest

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The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) deputy minister Pham Minh Huan said MoLISA was sourcing comments from relevant ministries and departments for the amended Labour Code which highlights labour relations and labour dispute settlement, striving to establish increasingly professional mediator teams, reduce strikes and create a standard investment environment.

“In the coming months, the MoLISA will submit to the government a salary hike proposal to partly ease labourer burdens while not hindering company performance,” Huan said.

Besides, the MoLISA is working on a plan to back industrial zones and export processing zones workers. The plan will be finalised two months later encompassing both long-term support policies and immediate support measures.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s (MPI) recent survey on labourer incomes at industrial zone businesses, the current incomes average VND2 million ($97) per month, including diverse kinds of allowances.

The survey also indicates that 30.7 per cent of the respondents said their current wages and allowances were insufficient to cover minimal daily expenses. Up to 48.2 per cent said their current pay was too low and they had to work extra hours to seek additional incomes.

In fact, with current escalating living costs, labourers have to spend from 55-62 per cent of their wages on food. Low wages was reportedly the core reason behind 80 per cent of strikes in Vietnam.

According to Haiphong city’s Tan Nguong Shoes Company report sent to the MoLISA, the company incurred losses of $40 million from workers’ nine-day strikes in mid April 2011. The worker’s wages now stand at VND1.8 million ($87) per month after four revisions.

Deputy chairman of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour Mai Duc Chinh said low wages trigged an increasing number of strikes at foreign invested businesses, particularly those active in textiles, garments and footwear production.

Chinh said some businesses developed a payroll of 30-35 levels, with a difference of only VND10,000 to VND20,000 between each level to minimise wage hike overheads. Some others introduced too high productivity norms, making their workers trying hard to reach the norms, let alone getting bonuses.

However, in the present context of spiraling inflation and lending rates, businesses and the workers needed to increase dialogues to raise mutual understanding, thus helping bring down strike number, Chinh said.