'Umbrella-stealing civil servants' hinder labor productivity

According to Mr. Bui Sy Loi: Assuming the figure of 1/3 of civil servants "going to work with an umbrella in the morning and going home with an umbrella in the evening" is correct, then this number has hindered labor productivity.

Speaking to the press at the Workshop on Social Dialogue, Productivity and Working Conditions (organized by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and the ILO) held on the morning of October 24 in Hanoi, Mr. Bui Sy Loi - Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs affirmed: Assuming that the figure of 1/3 of civil servants "going to work with an umbrella in the morning and going home with an umbrella in the evening" is correct, then clearly this number has hindered the labor productivity of society.

What makes Vietnam's labor productivity low?

Mr. Bui Sy Loi said: “The saying that 700,000 civil servants work ineffectively comes from experts’ forecasts. I think it could be more, it could be less. But assuming this happens, it is clear that 1/3 of civil servants have very low labor productivity, hindering the labor productivity of society.

Ineffective civil servants hinder labor productivity (Illustrative photo)

However, we have not yet answered whether this number is actually correct or not. The Government has not yet answered the National Assembly. A Minister of the previous term answered that it was about 1%, as reported by the agencies, but no one believed it. Because that is the reality of society, but whether it is 30% or not, no one can confirm.

Obviously, this group needs to be dealt with in some way, but if we rely on the state, how can the country develop? It is estimated that thousands of billions are wasted each year to feed this force" - Mr. Bui Sy Loi affirmed.

At the workshop, many opinions said that Vietnam's low labor productivity partly comes from the unemployment rate among young people, especially "brainpower" workers, which is constantly increasing. It is worth mentioning that the more trained and capable the workers are, the higher the unemployment rate.

Mr. Bui Sy Loi

For example, the professional college group has 9% unemployment among the total number of students, and the university group has 4%. Up to now, there are about 191,000 university graduates who cannot find jobs or are unemployed. This is really sad and clearly needs to be recalculated, because it has caused waste of human resources and training.

Vietnam’s education scale is huge with more than 450 universities and colleges “competing” to recruit students and compete for training. But the sad thing is that the trained workforce is not used, causing costs not only for the state but also for the workers themselves and their families.

The challenge of increasing labor productivity

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee on Social Affairs Bui Sy Loi said that in Vietnam, the formal labor force out of 54 million workers aged 15 and over accounts for only 30%, the remaining 70% are informal. Therefore, unemployment, underemployment, as well as the need to increase labor productivity, cannot be “imposed” solely on the formal labor sector.

Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Doan Mau Diep also acknowledged that Vietnam's deeper integration into the global economy promises more and more economic benefits, an open labor market, technology transfer, and increased labor productivity. In that context, Vietnam faces challenges in improving productivity and working conditions, and promoting dialogue. Especially those working in the informal economy are left behind.

Deputy Minister Doan Mau Diep said that Vietnam has been implementing many synchronous solutions to promote labor productivity, improve working conditions and enhance social dialogue. This includes focusing on developing human resources comprehensively, accelerating high-quality vocational training; encouraging businesses to provide vocational training for workers and cooperating with vocational training institutions.

At the same time, develop and implement a national program on labor safety in each phase; promote the improvement of working conditions in small and medium enterprises; amend the Labor Code towards approaching international standards.

Swiss experience

Mr. Boris Zurcher

Sharing his experience on the factors contributing to Switzerland's labor productivity, Boris Zurcher, State Secretary, General Directorate for Economic Affairs of the Swiss Federal Government, said that labor productivity in Switzerland is very high. This comes from many different factors. The first is investment in human resources such as developing skills for workers, mechanisms for workers to participate in the labor market. Switzerland spends 60% of its GDP on investing in developing human resources for the country.

Second, Switzerland has a labor market mechanism. This is a very flexible and open mechanism, which can allow workers to participate in the market with different mechanisms. Third, building labor relations and social labor dialogue. This is a mechanism that can help workers, as well as employers, to dialogue and improve working and employment conditions.

“We have built an integrated market mechanism, in which businesses can participate in global value chains, thereby giving them the opportunity to improve labor productivity. Investing in the technical and vocational training system is also a good mechanism for Vietnam to consider and consider to help increase labor productivity,” Mr. Boris Zurcher shared.

According to VOV