Lesson 1: "Living miserably" on minimum wage

(Baonghean) - Salary is both a motivation and a lever to stimulate workers to work productively, with quality and efficiency, and a means to ensure their livelihood. At enterprises in the province, workers are receiving a salary that is too low, not enough to meet their basic needs. Many strikes and collective work stoppages have occurred, the main reason being that the "cake" of interests between enterprises and workers has not been satisfactorily resolved...

A worker from Quy Hop has been working for Matrix Company Limited in Bac Vinh Industrial Park for 8 months now. Living far from home, having to rent a room to live, while the salary is too low makes her depressed, sometimes wanting to quit her job. She said that her current salary is 2.249 million VND/month, in 2013 it was 1.926 million VND/month. Plus a gasoline allowance of 60 thousand VND/month, overtime pay of 12,000 VND/hour; diligence allowance of 283,000 VND/month. On average, her monthly income is about 2.5 million VND, if she works overtime a lot, she gets about 3 million VND. “That salary is too low, just enough for workers like me to cover daily living expenses. If there is a sudden wedding or funeral, or visiting friends, I don’t know how to handle it. I have been working for 8 months but still haven’t saved any money. The job is stressful, and my diet is not guaranteed, so my health is declining. If I take 4 hours off without permission, the company will deduct all my monthly attendance allowance, so even though I am tired, I have to try to work to meet my salary,” she shared. Looking at the labor contract she signed with the company, I found it very sketchy. The contract did not state what the work was. The sections: providing working tools, obligations, and benefits of employees were all left blank. The allowances were also left blank, there was no salary increase policy, no bonus.

Next to her room is a girl from Yen Thanh, who has been working as a worker at Trung Lai Gas Lighter Company since August 2012. Before that, this girl had 3 years of experience as a worker in Binh Duong, but because she wanted to be close to her family, she returned to her hometown to apply for a job. This girl said: My salary is calculated based on products, in which the basic salary is 8 hours a day, 8.8 thousand VND per hour (before January 1, 2014, it was 8.6 thousand VND/hour). If I work 26 days, I will get 1.83 million VND, plus 130 thousand VND for housing, 130 thousand VND for gas, 200 thousand VND for diligence... Each month I receive about 3 million VND". When we asked to see the contract, she said she had not signed the contract, which meant she had not paid insurance.

Currently, workers in non-state enterprises are receiving low salaries, stressful working environments, many policies such as working hours and rest time are not guaranteed, seniority is not available, and many places do not have social insurance. Meanwhile, organizations and authorities, although aware, find it very difficult to protect workers.

Nam Cam Industrial Park currently has many projects being implemented, some projects such as BSE Electronics Co., Ltd., Tien Phong Plastic Company in Central Vietnam have come into operation and have a large demand for labor. BSE Electronics Co., Ltd. currently has about 2,000 workers and is recruiting about 6,000 workers by 2015. A woman from Thai Hoa said that she has been working at BSE Electronics Co., Ltd. for 7 months; when she went for the interview, they said that the salary would increase every 6 months, but now they say it is once a year. But she has no evidence so she has to accept it. After the strike, the company increased the salary but the pressure also increased. She sat for 10 hours a day, only having a 1-hour break for lunch.

Nghi Loc is a locality with a large labor force working in enterprises in the province. According to unofficial data, by the end of 2013, the whole district had about 3,000 workers working in factories, mainly concentrated in Bac Vinh and Nam Cam Industrial Parks. Mr. Nguyen Van Ba, Head of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Nghi Loc district, said: Enterprises in the district hardly cooperate with local authorities. Therefore, inspections and checks to ensure the regime for workers are very difficult to carry out. We only know the salary through the workers. When there is a conflict between workers, the authorities and local authorities can conduct inspections. Some companies even come to ask to be confirmed on the low salary table in order to reduce insurance payments for workers.

Workers at MLB TENERGY LLC.

Many workers at MLB TENERGY Co., Ltd. in Yen Thanh Town (Yen Thanh District) are also upset with some of the regulations set forth by the Company. A worker from Van Thanh Commune said: Working overtime hard, minus social insurance payments... only has more than 2.7 million VND left. While the factory manager often threatens to fire workers, the working atmosphere is always tense. Specifically, on New Year's Day 2014, the factory did not have a Tet bonus for workers, the factory manager calmly said: The factory was newly built, difficult "begged for a delay", "nothing". On Lunar New Year, the factory manager also "begged for a delay", the workers were upset and went on strike, the factory only settled for 500,000 VND/person.

It is known that after the Lunar New Year 2014, more than 30 employees at MLB Company unilaterally terminated their contracts. Responding to the questions of the employees, Ms. Phan Thi Vinh - Chief Accountant - representative of MLB Company explained: "Currently, the Company has 503 employees, of which 470 are official employees and the rest are seasonal employees. For official employees receiving salaries according to State regulations, from January 1, 2014, the rate applied to enterprises operating in region 4 is 1,900,000 VND/month and multiplied by 7% vocational training fee, 5% hazardous salary, reaching 2,135,000 VND/person/month, in addition to lunch and other support regimes". The policies at this company are all applied at the minimum level, in addition to the salary policy, the toxic allowance is only calculated at the lowest level of 5%, so many workers have proposed that the company increase the toxic allowance. However, Ms. Phan Thi Vinh said: We have all calculated the 5% toxic allowance, but the proposal is not in the appendix, we have to study it. For the 12,000 VND/person lunch, we eat very comfortably, but the proposal to eat light food to gain energy for work needs to be reconsidered.

In contact with workers of Prex Vinh Company Limited (Do Luong), we also received many dissatisfactions during the working process. A worker from Yen Son - Do Luong was upset: "Every day we have to prepare rice to bring to the Company to eat, because there is no collective kitchen here, the hot weather makes the rice in the trunk of the car spoil, many days it is spoiled and cannot be swallowed. Going out to eat snacks to get through the meal, knowing that it is not hygienic but still have to eat, the factory gives us 15,000 VND/meal, we have to pay an additional 15,000 VND". Discussing this issue, Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh - interpreter representing Prex Vinh Company said: The salaries we pay are in accordance with regulations, and the types of support money such as gasoline, attendance money... should not be available but the Company still gives them more. As for the issue of the Company not cooking for the workers, the main reason is that the number of workers in Do Luong live near their homes so it is more convenient for them to go home. The company has not built welfare facilities yet because it has been making losses for a long time.

According to a survey by the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, the average salary in 2013 of workers in the province is currently 2.9 million VND/month. Of which, 100% state-owned enterprises are 3.8 million VND/month; state-owned joint-stock enterprises are 2.6 million VND/month; private enterprises are 2.5 million VND/month; FDI enterprises are 2.8 million VND/month. Besides, there are still workers who only receive 1.9 - 2 million VND/month.

If classified by industry, the highest salary is in the mining industry (3,760,000 VND/month), followed by the service - trade industry (2,452,000 VND/month), construction (2,119,000 VND/month), leather - footwear - textiles (1.9 million VND/month) and the lowest is the seafood industry (1,660,000 VND/month). The most labor-attracting sector at present is garment. With the construction of many garment factories such as Haivina Kim Lien, Prex Vinh, Khai Hoan, Nam Sung Vina... has created jobs for more than 10,000 workers in the province in recent years. However, this is also one of the industries where workers have low salaries. On average, the salary that workers receive since the beginning of 2014 (after the decision to increase the regional minimum wage) is about 2.2 million VND/month. Workers are mainly paid a salary equal to the regional minimum wage set by the Government. Mr. Le Van Thuy, Head of the Department of Labor - Employment - Wages and Social Insurance (Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs) assessed: Compared to other provinces, the salary that workers in the area receive is still low and does not meet the requirements of workers in today's life.

Violations of labor laws in enterprises, especially in the non-state sector in Nghe An, are still quite common, mainly violations of regulations on working hours, rest time, low wages, unpaid wages, violations of regulations on labor contracts, failure to strictly implement policies on social insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance, labor protection, etc. In particular, the situation of enterprises avoiding, appropriating, and owing social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance payments is still occurring in many enterprises, with the amount of tens of billions of VND.

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Economic Reporter Group