Data from the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor shows that the country currently has nearly half a million workers who are no longer able to work as regularly as before, due to a lack of orders from businesses. Facing this fact, ministries and branches are studying to advise competent authorities to issue policies to support workers and businesses to overcome difficulties.

Simultaneously cutting labor

Ms. Pham Thi My (worker of Annora Shoes Company, Nghi Son Economic Zone, Thanh Hoa) said that from the beginning of October, due to a lack of orders, the company informed workers in some departments to take a few days off in months to wait for work. According to the plan, if the workers still have annual leave days, they will register for the leave according to the regime. Employees who have taken all annual leave days will take leave to wait for work. During the break, the company still pays the basic salary. The less work caused the income of Ms. My and many other workers to drop sharply.

Workers in the textile, garment and footwear industries are facing the risk of losing their jobs. Illustration picture: Pham Thanh

Ms. Vu Thi Huong, Director of Thanh Hoa Provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that some businesses in the area are facing difficulties (especially enterprises producing textiles, garments and footwear for export) in production activities when goods decreased, the cost of purchasing materials increased. There have been textile enterprises without orders and will stop operating in the next 3 months if the situation does not improve. “Basically, production and business activities of enterprises in the province are still stable. The majority of businesses whose orders have been reduced do not organize overtime. The employee's income decreased by 500-1 million VND/month compared to before. Some garment enterprises due to a sharp decrease in orders had to cut workers, "said Ms. Huong.

According to the Vietnam Social Insurance, in 2021, the whole country will have more than 839,000 workers who have received unemployment benefits from the Unemployment Insurance fund, with a total benefit amount of over 16,200 billion VND. In addition, the Unemployment Insurance Fund has paid more than 31,000 billion VND to more than 13 million participating workers affected by the COVID-19 epidemic.

In the past 1 month, 25 enterprises in Thanh Hoa province announced to cut more than 5,500 workers. Enterprises operating in the fields of textiles, footwear, and furniture cut the most number of employees... It is expected that in the next 3 months, there will be 8 more textile and footwear enterprises reducing nearly 4,500 workers. Particularly, Annora Shoes Co., Ltd. will reduce more than 1,100 workers.

Statistics from the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs in some localities show that the situation of workers who are of job shortage and job loss has taken place and tends to increase. Specifically, in Nam Dinh, more than 5,500 workers lost their jobs. Vinh Long has 9 businesses for more than 7,400 workers who stopped working and more than 1,500 people lost their jobs. Ben Tre expects that in the next 3 months, more than 2,000 workers will be cut. From June to now, in Long An, more than 1,300 workers lost their jobs while Tay Ninh has more than 43,500 workers affected by lack of orders, of which more than 1,300 workers lost their jobs.

In Hai Duong, Mr. Bui Quoc Trinh, Deputy Director of the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs said that among the enterprises that reported, there were 29 enterprises facing difficulties in ordering due to the high price of raw materials, so they had to cut jobs. More than 300 people lost their jobs, more than 1,800 people reduced their working hours, more than 1,500 people stopped or quit without pay. It is expected that in the next 3 months, there will be 41 more enterprises in Hai Duong that will cut nearly 3,000 more workers... Leaders of Hai Duong Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and many other localities have proposed to ministries, sectors and the Government to have policies to support businesses facing difficulties due to lack of orders to receive tax, fee and insurance reduction; support workers are reduced, lost income due to lack of work..

Research and propose a support package

Talking to Tien Phong reporter, Mr. Phan Van Anh, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour, said that this agency, together with the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Vietnam Confederation of Trade and Industry (VCCI) had just meeting on the situation of workers reducing and losing their jobs. After assessing the situation, the parties proposed a number of solutions to report to the Government such as: Having more financial packages to support workers' accommodation rent; package to support enterprises to retrain workers and improve their skills; supporting enterprises to transform technology and production lines to maintain jobs; consider exemption, reduction or postponement of some taxes and fees for businesses...

With the proposal to support retraining and improving skills for workers, according to Mr. Phan Anh, it needs to be adjusted because the previous support packages were not disbursed much. Besides, research directly supports workers, including living expenses while they go to school. “Workers who have lost their jobs will have no income, have to find other jobs to earn their livelihood, so they don't have the time or mood to go to school. If there is support for retraining of workers, it is necessary to supplement direct support and support for living expenses. If only supporting tuition fees, it will be very difficult to succeed,” said Mr. Phan Anh. In addition, localities also need to study supportive policies and packages for local workers, organize forums so businesses can share orders with each other, or connect to re-recruit workers in underemployed enterprises.

According to the leader of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, statistics from 44 provinces and cities show that more than 1,200 businesses have difficulties in ordering, thus affecting the employment of over 472,200 workers. Among them, more than 41,500 workers lost their jobs (accounting for nearly 9% of the total number of affected workers), the rest had their working hours reduced, and unpaid leave. The most difficult block is the textile, leather and footwear, wood processing, electronic enterprises for export, when the European and American markets reduce orders and imports. Among the enterprises that reduced their orders mentioned above, there are 30 enterprises that owe more than 110 billion in salary of nearly 7,000 workers. There are 121 businesses that owe the social insurance money of more than 32,300 employees with an amount of more than 237 billion VND.

The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor has asked trade unions at all levels to take the initiative in understanding the employment situation and income of laborers to take timely support measures; requested enterprises to soon announce the plan of Tet holiday, salary and Tet bonus; strengthen dialogue with businesses to rotate operations, minimize the dismissal of workers, ensure full benefits and regimes for workers who have to quit job./.