Nghe An workers expect 6,600 billion VND housing rental support package

Difficulty after difficulty

The life of rented workers is always a typical image of a life of hardship. Living abroad, they not only struggle with material things but also lack spiritual life. At present, the most common point of rented workers is that they have almost all gone through the F0 stage with many difficulties.

Around VSIP Industrial Park, there are many dormitories for workers. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

We met Phan Van Cuong (from Yen Thanh) in a newly built boarding house near VSIP Industrial Park at 5:00 p.m. Cuong has been working at VSIP Industrial Park for several months now. Before that, Cuong worked as a worker for a large technology corporation in Bac Giang. Explaining the reason for moving to Nghe An while the salary in Bac Giang is higher than the current salary, Cuong said: "My family only has 2 mother and son, my mother is also old so I want to work closer to home, when I need to go home to take care of my mother it is also easier. However, during this period, the company has canceled many orders, there is no overtime so the salary I receivejust over 4 million per monthVND, the rent is 750,000 VND not to mention electricity, water, food, it's hard to raise myself, let alone raise my mother." Having gone through many difficulties and storms, although born in 2001, Cuong's face is much older and more thoughtful than his age.

For Ms. Vy Thi Xuan, the pressure on salary mainly comes from taking care of her two young children. Her current salary is around 4-5 million VND, while she has to work until 8 pm. Her husband has only worked for 1 week after Tet and then quit because of the epidemic. "We know that the life of a worker is hard and the working hours are irregular, but we still want to bring our children from Quy Hop down here, partly because we want to take care of and educate them ourselves, and partly because we want our children to have better learning conditions, so that they will have less trouble in the future," Ms. Xuan confided.

Vy Thi Xuan's family has been facing continuous difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

Ms. Xuan's family of 4 has just recovered from Covid-19 for 1 week and during the 1 week of illness, she, her husband, 7-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son stayed in a 20m2 rented room.²It is very crowded on Dang Thai Mai street. Holding the paper with the house and electricity and water prices for March, Ms. Xuan sighed: "The house rent is 900 thousand plus electricity and water is 1.4 million VND. When the 2 children go to school, there will be many more expenses. I just hopestable jobto make a living".

Of all the rented rooms we visited, Mr. Hoang Huu Bach's (Dien Chau) room was the most "impressive". The interior of the room was about 9m2.²His house only has an old bed and a rickety plywood cabinet that is about to collapse. He brought some essential items from home and lives temporarily, simply to earn money to send back to his parents, wife and children at home. "I calculated, buying food to cook at home is a bit difficult but will save money. Everything in Vinh is very expensive, if I don't save, I won't have money to feed my wife and children" - while preparing dinner to go to work the night shift, Mr. Bach explained.

Even though he lives alone, Mr. Bach still cooks for himself to save money. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

Understanding the difficulties of workers, the landlord Tran Thi Thao (Hung Tay) said: “The workers who rent accommodation at my place are all from remote districts, it is very difficult, they do not have any savings. During the recent epidemic, partly because the factory had few orders, partly because they had to quit their jobs due to Covid-19, partly because of poor health after the disease... The children's lives were already lacking, but now they are even more lacking. Every time they go home, they have to bring bottles of fish sauce, jars of sesame and peanuts, bags of rice... to limit spending as much as possible."

Joy to share

In order to attract workers back to the labor market after 2 years of being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Prime Minister recently issued Decision No. 08/2022/QD-TTg dated March 28, 2022 on spending 6,600 billion VND to support housing rent for workers. Although not many workers have specific information about this support package, everyone is eager and looking forward to it.

Despite low salaries, Tran Van Hieu and his wife (Thanh Chuong) accept to spend 1.5 million VND/month on rent because they want their child to have a clean, spacious place to live. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

When asked about the Government's housing support program, worker Phan Van Cuong's face seemed happier: "I have heard vaguely about the support package on the Bac Giang workers' group but have not had time to learn specifically, nor have I seen the company's union share about this content. The program is very meaningful, no matter how little or much, this support is very valuable to us poor workers."

Similarly, Ms. Xuan's family has not yet been informed about the content of this support package. She said: "I come home from work at 8 pm, clean up, shower and then it's time to go to bed. Tomorrow morning I have to get up at 5 am to get ready for the children and rush to the company, no free time to watch TV or read the news on the phone. All information is waiting for the company's union to announce and I have not heard the union propagate this content yet. But hearing it makes me feel cared for, encouraged and shared."

Ms. Xuan and Mr. Cuong's sharing is also the common sharing of many workers at this time. Although they do not really grasp the information and do not know if they are eligible for support, everyone is excited about the program.

Workers' lives in rented accommodation face many difficulties. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

Explaining why the content of the housing rental support program has not been widely implemented to grassroots unions, Ms. Tran Thi Nguyet - Vice President of the Dong Nam Economic Zone Trade Union said: "Decision No. 08 has the meaning of sharing and supporting workers who are still having difficulties with housing so that they can work with peace of mind, participate in production recovery, and support businesses.retaining employeesto restore and develop production and business, while aiming to attract back workers who had to leave the city to return to their hometowns due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the program is applied to certain areas, so we are waiting for specific instructions from the authorities before implementing propaganda to workers."

According to statistics, Nghe An currently has more than 30,000 workers in the Southeast Economic Zone and industrial parks. Of these, nearly 6,000 workers are living in rented houses with rents ranging from 500,000 VND to 1.5 million VND/month.

Two groups of workers in industrial parks, export processing zones, and key economic zones are entitled to the Housing Rental Support Policy for Workers supported under Decree No. 82/2018/ND-CP:

1. Employees currently working: Eligibility conditions are renting or staying in a rented house between February 1, 2022 and June 30, 2022; having an indefinite-term labor contract or a fixed-term labor contract of 01 month or more signed and starting before April 1, 2022; participating in compulsory social insurance (named in the list of compulsory social insurance participants of the Social Insurance agency) in the month immediately preceding the time the enterprise prepares the list of employees requesting rent support.

In case the employee is not subject to compulsory social insurance as prescribed in Clause 4, Article 2, Decree No. 115/2015/ND-CP dated November 11, 2015 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Law on Social Insurance on compulsory social insurance, he/she must be on the payroll of the enterprise for the month immediately preceding the time the enterprise prepares the list of employees requesting rent support. Support level: VND 500,000/month, maximum 3 months.

2. Workers returning to the labor market. Eligibility conditions are: renting or staying in a rented house between April 1, 2022 and June 30, 2022; having an indefinite-term labor contract or a fixed-term labor contract of 01 month or more signed and performed between April 1, 2022 and June 30, 2022, except for labor contracts signed in continuation of previously signed and performed labor contracts; participating in compulsory social insurance (named in the list of compulsory social insurance participants of the Social Insurance agency) in the month immediately preceding the time the employer prepares a list of workers requesting rent support. Support level: 1,000,000 VND/month, maximum 3 months, paid monthly.