Lack of domestic workers

“As scheduled”, after Tet, domestic workers take long breaks, even quit their jobs, causing many families in Vinh City to face difficulties when they have to arrange and manage housework, take care of children and complete work at the office…

Half laughing, half crying...

After the Tet holidays, back to work, Ms. Nguyen Hai Yen in Quan Bau ward (Vinh city) counted the days, hoping that the maid from her hometown would come back. She and her husband are both bank employees, their work requires them to leave early and come back late, and their two children are still young, so before the maid returned to her hometown, Ms. Yen reminded her repeatedly that she should return to work early in the morning of the 6th at the latest. However, after much delay, the maid asked for an extension until after the full moon of January, citing the custom in her hometown that they must go to the pagoda and make offerings on the full moon... When she "gave in" and begged, the maid started to tell the "hardships" of babysitting, then compared herself to other families to demand a "salary" increase... So Ms. Yen had to find a new maid. During that time, the couple had to divide the housework, take care of the children, and pick them up and drop them off... She complained that "without a maid, it was so difficult, even if I had three heads and six arms, I still couldn't handle it; sometimes I still had to ask the office to let me come late or leave early...".

Workers looking for housekeeping jobs after Tet at Ket Noi Company Limited (Vinh City).

As for Ms. Nguyen Kim Ngan's family in Ha Huy Tap ward, although they "indulged" their maid in every way: buying gifts to send back to their hometown during Tet, giving them monthly bonuses... but after Tet, they still could not avoid having to fend for themselves because the "maid" was untrustworthy. On the 6th day of Tet, she called the maid but was politely refused, saying "there was something to do at home", then she put it off, put it off... Her family had a small child, and her husband worked far away, so there was no one to help look after the child while she went to work. As a last resort, she had to ask her father from the countryside to come down and look after her temporarily. Without a maid, Ms. Ngan's family life was turned upside down. She had to wake up early, take care of the market, cook, wake up her child, feed him so he could go to work on time, then rush home to prepare lunch, in the afternoon... in the evening, she went back to cook, do laundry, and clean.

She ran around, asked relatives in the countryside for recommendations, asked friends in the city to find a new maid, but all to no avail. To save time and minimize trouble, she accepted the intermediary fee and asked the job placement center to find a replacement maid. However, finding a satisfactory maid, trustworthy enough to entrust the house and look after the children was not a simple matter. Within just one week, her family had to replace 2 maids. Ms. Ngan was frustrated: "Nowadays, maids are very selective about their jobs. Few people want to work in families with small children, afraid of hardship; some people agree to work but demand a salary of over 3 million VND; we, civil servants, cannot afford it."

Every year, the domestic help market after Tet is always "hot". Not only do families struggle because of the lack of domestic helpers, domestic help service companies are also seriously short of human resources. According to research at Dai Thang Family Service Trading Company Limited (Vinh City), specializing in domestic helper services, the demand for domestic helpers after Tet is often higher than in other months. Since the beginning of the year, the company has received more than 60 requests from customers calling to find domestic helpers. However, supply cannot meet demand, the company can only meet about 50%. Mr. Ho Huu Thang, Director of the company, said that most of the domestic helpers are unemployed rural women or women around the age of 50; their general mentality is still to work spontaneously and think "if you like it, do it, if you don't like it, quit". Many people often stay in their hometowns after the full moon, or return to the city at the end of the first lunar month, so even though the company goes to the villages to distribute recruitment flyers with salaries ranging from 2.5 to 3 million VND, and there are people who pick them up at the bus station, it is still difficult to find a housekeeper.

The shortage of domestic helpers after Tet has caused the service of hiring hourly and seasonal domestic helpers to flourish. For many families, this is the best solution. Students are the target group that families pay attention to and choose to hire as hourly or short-term domestic helpers. The work is not too hard, with quite attractive income, so most students are very excited about this seasonal domestic work. Having just returned to the city after Tet, Nguyen Thi Hai, a student at Vinh University, was introduced by her friends to work as an hourly domestic helper. Every day, she takes advantage of the 2 hours in the afternoon off from school to clean, do laundry, cook (sometimes even pick up children) for a family in Cua Nam ward and is paid 70 - 80 thousand VND/2 hours. "The job is not hard but it brings income, so I try to arrange to go to work to have more money to cover my studies and living expenses; to help my parents somewhat", Hai shared.

The general trend of families in the city today is to find hourly or part-time housekeepers, who can do necessary household chores such as cleaning the house, doing laundry, cooking (one session a day); picking up children from school... so that they do not have to pay for a housekeeper to eat and live in the house, avoiding affecting the family's common life and saving more money (only from 1.5 - 2 million VND/month). This hourly or part-time housekeeper job is mainly suitable for unemployed workers in the city, most of whom are students.

Lack of binding mechanism

Domestic work is an inevitable need of modern life, especially in urban areas. However, most of the people who do this job still have a spontaneous and unprofessional mindset. Domestic work is not considered a profession like other professions in society. Because there is no binding between the homeowner and the domestic worker, most of them are still used to the form of "verbal agreement". The reason for this situation comes from both sides. Domestic workers mostly come from rural areas, have low education levels, and do not dare to sign labor contracts. As for the employers, they still have the habit of choosing domestic workers with family relationships or friends, so they are not respectful and do not sign written contracts. In addition, while the demand for domestic workers is increasing, the training of necessary skills and knowledge for domestic workers is still not focused on. Therefore, domestic workers still quit their jobs without notice, and the homeowners are helpless. Or when conflicts or problems arise, the homeowner and the maid will still resolve them in their own way.

Implementing a labor contract between the employer and the domestic worker is difficult, let alone implementing it according to the provisions of Decree 27/2014 of the Government (effective from May 25, 2014), with contents such as: agreement on salary, total salary including accommodation expenses of the domestic worker agreed by both parties but not lower than the regional minimum wage; being paid extra salary if working outside the contract time or on holidays, Tet; being paid an additional amount equivalent to the level of social insurance, health insurance contributions...

Discussing this issue, Mr. Ho Van Chien, Director of Ket Noi Consulting Company Limited (Vinh City), specializing in providing domestic help services, admitted: “Although having signed a contract, some domestic helpers still quit their jobs after Tet because they want to change jobs, or want to find a job with a higher salary. At this time, domestic helpers are scarce, so they have not found a replacement, so the company has to return 50% of the fee to the homeowner. As for the salary and the work that the domestic helper has to do in the family, the two parties will negotiate on their own; as for the insurance payment for the domestic helper, the employer has not yet participated.”

Thus, when domestic workers have not been trained in the necessary skills, lack professionalism, lack legal knowledge, and employers do not have strict legal constraints, the situation of domestic worker shortage after Tet is still an unending story...

Dinh Nguyet