Cat Van Loi Company cries due to fear of delayed delivery. Photo: U.P
Crying Tears
These days, Cat Van Loi Industrial Electrical Equipment Manufacturing Joint Stock Company (Ho Chi Minh City Automobile Mechanical Industrial Park, Cu Chi district) is in chaos because of the lack of workers, delaying the delivery progress to foreign partners due to the long holiday on the occasion of April 30 without prior planning. Currently, the enterprise is rearranging personnel, assigning workers to departments to ensure work progress.
Mr. Le Mai Huu Lam, General Director of Cat Van Loi Industrial Electrical Equipment Manufacturing Joint Stock Company, said that the enterprise mainly depends on customers for export goods. The continuous holiday for many days without prior planning not only causes fluctuations in human resources, but also affects the delivery progress. Therefore, the company only allowed workers to take 2 days off on April 30 and May 1. “Workers are happy when taking a long holiday, but the company is… crying. Although the company only allows 2 days off, many workers ask for an annual leave to take more days off, which reduces the production force. While the enterprise is facing many difficulties to get orders back, the factory is now worried that many workers will take time off and fail to ensure the delivery progress, which will affect future contracts” – said Mr. Lam.
Mr. Lam added that the company is trying to persuade and explain the situation that the factory needs to complete orders for workers to accompany. If direct workers take many days off, the company will add overtime.
As the owner of a business specializing in exporting fresh agricultural products such as mangoes, dragon fruits, bananas, etc., Ms. Nguyen Thi Thom, representative of Minh Khoi Company Limited (Thu Duc City) is worried because the factory cannot stop operating for many days. To ensure progress, the enterprise accepts to reduce its profit and increase bonuses to encourage workers to work during the holidays. Workers can take 3 days off on Sunday and April 30, May 1 according to regulations, but if they come to work on compensatory days off, they will be paid 200% more” – Ms. Thom affirmed.
Sharing about the long holiday plan on the occasion of April 30, Mr. Truong Hoang Tam, Chairman of the Labor Union of Printing Joint Stock Company No. 7 (Tan Tao Industrial Park, Binh Tan District) said that only a few small departments of the Company office are allowed to take 5 days, while other departments will take the right days off as before. “Because the company does not switch the day off, all employees and workers are encouraged to take a reasonable number of days off to produce goods. Currently, the enterprise’s orders are stable, workers are paid overtime every week, so they are very excited” – said Mr. Tam.
Ms. Nguyen Nam Phuong, Director of Phuong Nam Food Company (District 12), which specializes in producing frozen traditional cakes, said that the Government had decided to take a 5-day holiday, so the enterprise would comply and notify workers to take time off at the specified time. However, because the enterprise has orders that need to be delivered on schedule, workers will be allowed to register to work during the holidays. “Workers who come to work on holidays are paid 3 times more than usual. We accept losses and still produce on holidays to deliver orders on time” – said Ms. Phuong.
Increased Bonuses
Orders increased sharply in recent days, Mr. Pham Quang Anh, Director of Dony Garment Company (Binh Chanh District) offered many attractive incentives to encourage workers to work during the holidays. Specifically, workers will receive higher salaries than usual, not to mention additional bonuses for exceeding KPIs (work efficiency) and good year-end evaluations… “Up to now, 50% of the company’s workers have voluntarily registered to work extra during the holidays. Most of them asked to work on April 27, 28, 29, even some people wanted to register to work all through the holiday” – said Mr. Quang Anh.
Dony Garment Company offers many incentives when workers come to the factory during the holidays. Photo: U.P
According to the leader of Dony Garment Company, after a time when the enterprise faced difficulties due to lack of orders and workers worked at a slow pace, now everyone wants to work more. Working during the holidays, both salary and bonuses increase, so the workers are very happy. “Currently, the enterprise has many orders, so the workers are very excited, want to go to work, and the enterprise creates conditions for workers to take advantage of this opportunity to increase their income” – added Mr. Quang Anh.
Although it is a FDI (foreign invested) enterprise, Nidec Vietnam Company Limited (Thu Duc High-Tech Park) still arranges for workers to have a long holiday on the occasion of April 30. Mr. Luu Kim Hong, Chairman of Nidec Vietnam Company’s Labor Union, said only a part of the plastic molding workers worked during the holiday. However, they do not have to work all 5 days, employees can voluntarily register to work and will receive additional salary and bonus as prescribed.
Mr. Pham Xuan Hong, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Textile, Embroidery and Knitting Association, said that any change in policy also affects previous plans of enterprises. In theory, the switch to make the holiday last for 5 consecutive days only applies to the public sector, but in fact, enterprises always consider and arrange for workers to have time off together to avoid affecting their psychology.
Currently, many enterprises still organize production according to the old holiday schedule, encouraging workers to accompany and continue working. The company will support additional costs for working on holidays or add 200,000 VND per working day for workers to feel secure.
