Labor woes
By Son Nguyen in HCMC
Labor strikes do not seem to be a good option for workers these days as the go-slow action to demand pay rises in the country – especially rife in the southern focal economic zone in recent years – has brought about little changes. Now the ultimatum has been delivered by workers: quitting the job.
Never in the country has the labor shortage become so acute when, according to local media, thousands of migrant workers refuse to return to the workplace in southern provinces like Binh Duong, Dong Nai and HCMC. And distress signals have been emitted when Japan-owned companies Nidec Tosok and Three Bambi in HCMC seek approval from labor authorities for bringing in thousands of guest workers from the Philippines and Laos.
These employers’ action is proposed after they have failed to attract locals despite months of running ads for laborers, according to Lao Dong.
Enterprises in HCMC alone now are in dire need of some 50,000 workers, including 12,000 in Linh Trung and Tan Thuan export processing zones, says Tuoi Tre. Thousands have not returned to work after the Lunar New Year, or Tet, as they have decided to stay back in their hometowns in rural areas, where factories are also springing up, according to the newspaper.
Efforts to recruit new workers to make up for the labor shortage do not pay off either. Vietnamnet says employers in HCMC in recent months have been able to recruit 30-35% of their demand only, while in all 2009, enterprises were able to recruit a mere 6% of their demand for 100,000 workers, 80% of them for manual jobs, according to Sai Gon Tiep Thi.
Given this widespread social phenomenon, officials and experts have been quick to pinpoint the reason behind: low wages.
Hepza, which is the watchdog of all export processing zones and industrial parks in HCMC, conducts a poll and points out that wages are the matter of utmost concern for workers, while the current pay level at most IPs and EPzs is still low. The starting salary for workers, says Hepza, is between VND1.28 million and VND1.45 million only a month, or around US$65 to US$75, Tuoi Tre reports. For workers with seniority of several years, the monthly pay remains modest, at some VND1.4 million to VND2.5 million.
“It is not the matter of manpower shortage, but the matter of low wages,” says Le Van Thanh of the HCMC Institute for Development Research in Tuoi Tre.
Le Thanh Tam, director of the HCMC Department of Labor, also assures the sufficient labor supply in the city, saying the unemployment rate in the city is still high at 5.3%. He asserts that low wages of VND1.7-1.8 million a month are no longer appealing to workers given the high living costs in the city, says Lao Dong.
Furthermore, workers are not treated well in the workplace, as their benefits such as social insurance are trimmed off, while certain employers are ready to dismiss workers en masse when they lack orders, says Nguyen Van Xe, deputy director of the city’s labor department.
Therefore, even if authorities allow Nidec Tosok and Three Bambi to bring in foreign guest workers although this goes against the law, the problem still cannot be solved due to the persistent low wage. Tuoi Tre says the Philippines and Laos have the wage level some 20% higher than in Vietnam.
While solutions to labor shortage remain to be found out, some local newspapers look deeper into the root cause to unveil structural problems relating to the labor market as well as the country’s socio-economic development.
Sai Gon Tiep Thi highlights the unequal labor allocation in the country, unveiling that enterprises in the southern focal economic zone make up 37% of the total number of enterprises but they are using 40.5% of labor. In the Mekong Delta, the number of enterprises accounts for 11.7% of the total, but they are using a mere 6.7% of the labor force, although the work force there accounts for 21.5%. Such a situation results in migration.
In many provinces, policymakers ignore or fail to anticipate labor demands, allowing industrial parks to spring up without adequate labor preparations. That is not to mention policies of discrimination against migrant workers by setting up barriers relating to residential registration or recruitment, says Sai Gon Tiep Thi.
Tuoi Tre observes there is a reversal in the migration process, when workers originating from the countryside are returning to their hometowns in rural areas where factories have been being erected recently. Many workers from rural areas see jobs in the city as temporary, and fret about an uncertain future there, so comes the exodus, according to the newspaper.
Labor movements are occurring according to economic rules, and workers are flocking into those places where they are treated better, so it is time for enterprises to look back at themselves, Bui Thanh Nhan, chair of the labor federation of Binh Duong Province, is quoted on Vietnamnet. Furthermore, there must be long-term plans for socio-economic development including labor allocation, says Sai Gon Tiep Thi, so that labor shortage as the acute issue now will not become a chronic problem.
The Saigon Times Daily