Wage hike gets industry thumbs up

>> Minimum wage set for early rise

The salary increase aims to ensure good living conditions for labourers amid rising inflation, said Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) deputy minister Pham Minh Huan.

“With an estimated price depreciation of around 15-17 per cent in 2011, first-zone firms with the sharpest pay rise of over 30 per cent would see their actual pay hiking by around 15 per cent only,” Huan said.

Hung Yen Garment Joint Stock Company general director Nguyen Xuan Duong said it would raise social insurance funds since current minimum wage-based social insurance fees remained low against an increasing number of beneficiaries.

“Our firm already pays the labourers around VND3-4 million ($145-$193.2) in monthly wages,” Duong said.

Vietnam General Confederation of Labour’s Workers-Trade Union Institute head Dang Quang Dieu said Vietnamese workers’ wage were low compared to regional peers. Therefore, hiking the minimum salary was crucial to achieve a labour market balance.

“Reasonable pay will help address labour turnover as well as current growing strikes at enterprises,” Dieu said.

According to Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs head Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, it was time for Vietnam to change the idea of taking low-cost workforce as an advantage to lure investors.

“Recent strikes reflect unstable labour relations. To develop the labour market, it is essential for workers to be truly paid for their labour,” said Huong.

Hanoi Industrial Zone and Export Processing Zone Authority deputy head Ngo Chi Hung said the authority had yet to receive any proposal feedback from the foreign-invested sector, while most of local firms based in Hanoi’s industrial zones agreed to the proposal to help ease labourers’ financial burdens amid spiraling inflation.

National Assembly Committee for Social Affairs deputy chairman Dang Nhu Loi assumed it would be necessary to revise current minimum wage scheme in the long run.

Loi argued that one region could host diverse types of companies with dissimilar work intensity and labourer efficiency, so that it would be unreasonable to have in place just a single minimum wage scheme.

Under the newest minimum wage hike proposal the MoLISA submitted to the government for approval, first-zone workers’ minimum wage was set at VND2 million ($97) per month, corresponding figures for second-zone workers were VND1.78 million ($86.3), for third-zone workers VND1.55 million ($75.18) and fourth-zone workers VND1.4 million ($67.9).