Need to 'patch loopholes' in service business management in industrial parks

Lessons from the case of the sanitation worker whose salary was delayed

In recent years, Nghe An has become a bright spot on the country’s investment attraction map, especially in the industrial sector. With its geographical advantages, increasingly complete infrastructure and open investment support policies, more and more large enterprises, especially those with foreign direct investment (FDI), choose Nghe An as a place to “set foot” for long-term production.

However, along with that strong development, a number of problems arising in the working environment are posing urgent requirements for perfecting the monitoring mechanism and ensuring the rights of workers, especially the group of workers at outsourcing service providers in factories and industrial parks (IPs).

Recently, the incident of a number of cleaning workers at Minh Hiep Trading and Service Company Limited, hired by an FDI enterprise to perform cleaning work in the factory premises, being owed wages, has caused a stir in public opinion.

According to the reflection of some cleaning workers here, for many months, they have not received their salaries on time, at times their salaries have been delayed for a long time, seriously affecting their lives. Although they have repeatedly petitioned the management unit, Minh Hiep Trading and Service Company Limited, the problem has not been resolved completely. Only when the incident was reflected by some press agencies did the workers receive their salaries.

It is worth mentioning that the unit that hired Minh Hiep Trading and Service Company Limited to perform the cleaning service has fully performed its payment obligations according to the contract. The fact that Minh Hiep Trading and Service Company Limited is late in paying the employees’ salaries has also affected the image and reputation of the FDI enterprise.

The above incident reflects a worrying reality that is common in industrial parks, factories, and production facilities when hiring services from other units to perform tasks within the premises of the factory or production facility. Workers are recruited by these service businesses, but the work location is in another place. Services often hired by factories and production facilities include: security services, cleaning, tree trimming, providing meals, etc.

It is worth mentioning that there is often a lack of tight contracts between service providers and workers, workers are often paid late, assigned inappropriate jobs... Therefore, when a dispute occurs, workers are often the most disadvantaged party.

It can be seen that the majority of workers working at service providers such as cleaning, security... are older workers, from rural and mountainous areas working in urban areas, so their understanding and awareness of labor laws are limited. Therefore, the signing of contracts is often not strictly implemented, depending largely on the employer.

Need to strengthen inspection and supervision

Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Huong - Chairwoman of the Southeast Economic Zone Trade Union, former Head of the Policy - Law Department, Nghe An Provincial Labor Federation said: Cases like the incident at Minh Hiep Trading and Service Company Limited are not isolated, but have been appearing in many other places with different levels of severity.

Ms. Huong recounted that during her work at the Policy and Law Department of the Provincial Labor Federation, she had met many workers at security and cleaning companies who had their salaries delayed or even "withheld". It is worth mentioning that most of these cases did not have contracts or had contracts that were not tight, so when disputes arose, the workers were often at a disadvantage.

According to Ms. Huong, the State management agency needs to strengthen inspection and examination work, especially monitoring the implementation of obligations to employees of service providers in industrial parks. At the same time, businesses hiring services also need to choose partners with enough prestige and responsibility to employees. Because once the partner's employees work at the factory, even if it is just "outside" tasks such as security and cleaning, the quality of service will also affect the image of the unit.

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There are cases where, due to loose labor contracts, when an accident occurs at work, workers have to accept the loss and cannot claim their rights...

Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Huong - Chairwoman of the Southeast Economic Zone Trade Union

In addition, Ms. Huong also believes that workers need to raise their awareness of labor laws, know how to sign labor contracts in accordance with regulations, monitor insurance payments, and promptly report when their rights are violated. Raising their understanding of the law will help them not be passive in protecting their legitimate rights.

In addition, grassroots trade unions and industrial park trade unions also need to be more proactive in approaching workers in the outsourcing service group, helping them grasp their rights, providing legal advice, receiving feedback and acting as a bridge to the authorities when there are signs of violations.