As Tet (Lunar New Year) approaches, salaries and bonuses become the foremost concern for workers, while businesses face the challenge of addressing these expectations in order to retain labor and sustain production after the holiday. In the first days of the twelfth lunar month, Pham Thi Hien, head of a production line at a food processing company in Vinh Loc A Industrial Park in HCMC, kept her eyes fixed on the newly signed notice outlining the company’s plan for Tet salaries and bonuses. The workshop was quiet, yet filled with anticipation as workers eagerly awaited her announcement. This tension is not unique to this year—Tet is always the period when labor relations in industrial parks and export processing zones come under pressure. It is not merely a matter of year-end stability, but also a critical question of retaining manpower and sustaining production for the year ahead. Maintaining smooth production post-Tet “We prioritize retaining skilled workers, even if it means accepting reduced profits in the final months of the year. Losing employees at this time would make it extremely difficult to recruit replacements after Tet,” said the leader of an interior furniture company in HCMC. In many factories, the recurring challenge […]