Railway industry struggles to retain workers amid wave of resignations

Leaders of Vietnam Railway Corporation expressed "great concern and worry" about the income of workers who guard, maintain, and serve on trains.

In the first 6 months of this year, the Railway Corporation had 130 people terminate their labor contracts one month to 12 months before reaching retirement age; 52 others voluntarily terminated their contracts before the deadline.

The Railway Corporation has paid more than 13 billion VND in severance pay in 6 months, while the payment for the whole year of 2016 was only 16 billion VND.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Vuong - Director of Ha Hai Railway Company, the unit managing the railway infrastructure through Hanoi and the routes to Hai Phong and Lang Son, said that since the beginning of 2016, the unit has had 139 workers resign and some people request to suspend their contracts, but "when they are suspended, no one returns to work"; currently the unit is short of more than 20 workers.

The main reasons railway workers quit their jobs are low income and hard work.

Most of the workers who quit their jobs are young people who have worked at the unit for the past 7 years, including maintenance workers and crossing guards in the areas of Hanoi, Gia Lam, Yen Vien, Giap Bat, Van Dien, Lac Dao...

"The main reason workers quit their jobs is because of low income and hard work. Road maintenance workers have to use physical labor such as carrying sleepers and stones... In addition, many people are also worried about reduced benefits because the enterprise has been equitized," said Mr. Vuong.

In 2015, Ha Hai Railway Company had an average income per capita of 5.6 million VND per month; in 2016 it was 6 million VND; in 2017 it is expected to be 6.7 million VND. "Although the average income is higher year after year, it is still low compared to society. After deducting the contribution to the state, workers receive less, so they need their salary to increase to 7-8 million VND," said Mr. Vuong.

To solve the labor shortage due to many absenteeism in Hanoi, Ha Hai Railway Company had to transfer many maintenance and barrier workers from Hai Duong and Thai Nguyen to the capital; the transferred workers received increased allowances and business expenses. However, Mr. Vuong said that this was only a temporary solution, in the long term, enough workers had to be recruited, but "since the beginning of the year, we have not been able to recruit more people due to low wages".

From October 1, the company will increase the income for workers by 200,000 - 300,000 VND/person/month based on income sources from maintenance and repair outside the industry. "We propose that the State increase the unit price of wages so that workers' incomes can increase," said Mr. Vuong.

Mr. Doan Duy Hoach - Deputy General Director of Vietnam Railway Corporation, said that in the first 6 months of the year, the average monthly income of the transport and infrastructure sectors was 6.6 million VND.

According to Mr. Hoach, working as a road patrol and guard is considered hard work, but due to the nature of the job, the salary is based on the worker's level, and there is no productivity, so there is no basis for raising the salary compared to the basic salary. These workers can only get a salary increase when the business has more profit.

According to the Railway Corporation, the average income of railway infrastructure workers is 6.6 million VND/month.

Every year, the Railway Corporation invests over 2,000 billion VND in railway infrastructure maintenance, through the assignment of maintenance product unit prices approved by the Ministry of Transport. The cost of paying workers' salaries has been calculated in that unit price.

"The Corporation's leaders are very concerned about the income of workers, especially those working as gatekeepers, maintenance workers, and service workers on trains. We are making efforts to improve service quality, increase output to increase revenue, and thereby increase income for our employees," said Mr. Hoach.

The Railway Corporation has also proposed to the State to increase the investment level from the budget for railway infrastructure maintenance to 1.3 times the annual level, starting from 2018, thereby ensuring the quality of railway infrastructure and creating opportunities to increase jobs for maintenance units and increase income for workers.

Regarding the road patrol force, the Corporation recommends that the Ministry of Labor apply a salary regime similar to that of lighthouse keepers in the maritime security sector.

In the immediate future, to ensure normal and safe production and business during the labor shortage, the Corporation has directed member enterprises to have solutions to ensure that shift positions are fully arranged; at the same time, strengthen safety inspections at positions related to train operations.

Units also transferred trained maintenance workers to support guarding at locations lacking human resources.