Construction industry in trouble, workers lack jobs

(Baonghean) -2011 was a particularly difficult year for the construction industry. Implementing Resolution 11/CP of the Government on solutions to curb inflation, stabilize the macro economy, ensure social security, including focusing on cutting public investment, caused a series of projects to be delayed for a long time, construction workers faced many difficulties.

Chairwoman of the construction industry union, Ms. Nguyen Thi My Hanh, said: Currently, there are 18 enterprises with grassroots unions operating in the construction industry union. However, those enterprises do not only do construction and installation but also do many other jobs such as: construction material production, mining, consulting, project management. Other projects using domestic capital, although not subject to postponement, are almost not funded, or are funded very little, causing contractors to suffer and workers to lose their jobs en masse. With a lack of capital, projects being postponed, enterprises are unable to pay workers' salaries, and are unable to pay insurance premiums to workers when due. Workers' lives and jobs are extremely precarious.

Mr. Nguyen Van T. - a worker at Nghe An Construction and Trade Joint Stock Company said: In 2011, he participated in the construction of a landslide embankment and a place to anchor boats to avoid natural disasters in Nghi Tan (Cua Lo Town). Due to lack of capital, the construction project had to stop after 2/3 of the progress. The workers had no jobs, market prices increased rapidly, so life was difficult.

Construction works are slow, some are in the final stages of construction but progress is slow, disbursement is slow, capital is very difficult because there is no advance payment and it is difficult to borrow from banks. There are very few new construction works allowed, so the construction and installation sector has almost no new jobs. In 2011, units in the industry only signed a few projects worth over 5 billion VND, the rest only accepted small projects of 1-2 billion VND and most of them were private projects invested to create jobs for workers.

For consulting units, 2011 was also a year without new work. Some projects had completed consulting documents at the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 but were stopped from starting, making it impossible to pay, and businesses had to owe salaries. Consulting units in the industry until the end of 2011 had almost not settled salaries for workers, but each month they tried to find money to give workers advances.

Lack of capital, construction delays, workers out of work

The picture of the construction materials production sector is somewhat brighter because their capital is stable and the loan ratio is low. However, in the last 6 months of the year, these enterprises began to face difficulties due to the backlog of goods and unsold products. The reason is that there are few new construction projects, so cement and bricks and tiles cannot be sold, even though the prices have been reduced to very low levels. In early October 2011, 2 enterprises had to stop the kilns, the reason was that the bricks were backlogged and the enterprises also took this opportunity to repair the damaged parts due to the flood and storm last year. The enterprises also tried to arrange for ½ of the workers to have work, the rest had to quit their jobs. It is calculated that the whole industry had nearly 500 workers who had to temporarily stop working and had no regular jobs in the last 2 months of the year (out of the total number of workers in the whole industry of about 3,000 people). When workers are temporarily laid off, enterprises can only try to pay insurance but cannot afford the salary regime for the layoff.

The life of workers in the industry this year is really difficult, the average salary for a full day of work for a month is about 2 million VND. Because of the slow salary, their life is even more difficult. Projects using budget capital are slow to be paid, causing congestion for businesses, pushing businesses into a situation where workers do not have wages, owe social insurance, and owe taxes. Typically, the 24 Irrigation Construction Company is owed 70 billion VND by the investor, of which late payment of insurance must pay interest, late payment of taxes must also pay interest. This is a problem that the state needs to study to solve, especially for completed projects. By all means, by all sources of capital to pay businesses, businesses will have the conditions to reproduce, fulfill their obligations to workers and to the State.

Through research, many opinions believe that Resolution 11/CP of the Government is very necessary, but when implemented, it is still general, every project or construction is stopped or has slow disbursement without distinguishing which is effective, essential, and which is not. The Government needs to review the list of projects and constructions that are still essential and effective to continue implementing, not doing it en masse, because projects that are being implemented but stopped also cause great waste (setting up camps, transferring motorbikes, workers, gathering materials, etc.). For example: Projects on schools, healthcare, and student housing are very necessary, but last year they were still stopped and delayed. Projects that have been completed and accepted for handover need to be disbursed for payment, projects that are in progress but stopped need to be disbursed for completed technical parts. For example, if a project has a design consulting document that has been approved but has not yet started construction, payment must be made for the consulting document preparation.

Thu Huyen