HCMC – Thousands of workers at Pouchen Vietnam in Dong Nai Province’s Bien Hoa City went on strike yesterday after the company’s management announced a smaller Tet bonus, prompting the local authorities to hastily work with the company’s leadership over the issue.
Nguyen Thi Nhu Y, president of the provincial Labor Union, said her organization was working with authorities of Bien Hoa City and Pouchen leaders to address the labor dispute, Tuoi Tre reported.
At around 10.30 am on January 7, thousands of the company’s workers abruptly staged a work stoppage, demanding that the company maintain its Tet bonus like last year’s. Droves of workers then overwhelmed National Highway 1K in protest against the reduced bonus.
Some workers stated that Pouchen management on January 6 issued a notice on the 2022 Tet bonus, which would range between 100% and 154% of their monthly wage for those having worked at the company for one year or more. Meanwhile, last year’s Tet bonus amounted to 190% of the monthly wage, or even 220% earlier.
Workers said the reduced bonus would result in lower income for them, especially those with seniority of ten years or longer. As such, hundreds of workers initiated the go-slow action, pushing 16,000 other workers off work as well.
Faced with the massive strike, hundreds of police officers were dispatched to the scene and sealed off the company’s entrance gate to prevent workers from flooding the national highway connecting Binh Duong and Dong Nai Province.
Bien Hoa City Chairman Nguyen Huu Nguyen, who was at the scene, said local authorities were working with Pouchen’s leadership, talking them into raising the Tet bonus for workers on level with last year’s. However, Nguyen also noted that workers should come to an understanding with the company’s difficulties induced by the pandemic, which had forced the company to its knee for a long time last year.
