Strikes spring from low pay and poor working and living conditions, said the National Assembly (NA) Committee for Social Affairs after finding out the facts in some cities.

According to a report from the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), since the Labour Law came into effect on March 24, 2006, there have been 1,171 strikes across the country. In recent years, large-scale strikes have become more and more frequent.

There were 201 strikes around the country from December 28, 2005 to March 23, 2006. 173 of 193 strikes happened at Taiwanese, Korean, Hong Kong and Japanese owned- foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City, and Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces.

One of the primary reasons is that the incomes of workers in FDI enterprises are not equal to their labour loads and working times. Since 1999, consumption prices have been increasing remarkably and labour prices have also changed. The minimum salary in state-run enterprises has been adjusted three times but the salaries in FDI ones has not been increased.

To stop strikers from demanding higher pay, Decree 03/2006/ND-CP on adjusting the minimum salary level in FDI enterprises was issued. According to Nguyen Thi Hoai Thu, chairwoman of the NA Committee for Social Affairs, due to lack of preparation, the decree has met various obstacles. Employers have confused financial issues because labour contracts this year were signed at the end of last year. Workers suffer loss when enterprises have not mapped out a payroll plan and there occurs inequality between short- and long-term workers.

In addition, FDI enterprises consider the minimum salary level as the basic salary level paid for workers and cut other subsidies. Chairman of the NA Office Bui Ngoc Thanh said that 10 percent of enterprises, mainly state-owned enterprises, have a payroll plan, but that 5,000 FDI enterprises and 20,000 domestic private enterprises had given various reasons for their lack of a payroll plan.

Another reason is that there exists two minimum salary levels, said Le Van Dieu, deputy chairman of the NA Committee for Social Affairs. Domestic enterprises have a minimum salary of 350,000 VND/person/month while that of FDI enterprises is 710,000 VND.

For this reason, workers working in the same sector in industrial zones are sometimes paid different salaries, which lead to comparisons and strikes. Trang A Pao, chairman of the NA Ethnic Minorities Council, affirmed that the salary policy was outdated in general. Salary increases once every three years were not enough to encourage workers to increase their productivity.

According to Tran Thi Tam Dan, chairwoman of the NA Committee for Culture and Education, Youth and Children, said that a large number of workers have to live in poor conditions in small rented houses and have poor spiritual lives. In the case of poor living conditions, constant shift increases and low earnings, strikes were inevitable.

She added that it was high time for the government to work out a clear and overall plan to resolve housing problems for workers in industrial zones (IZ). The state cannot fully subsidise but mobilise other economic sectors to take part in solving the problem.

Nguyen Hoai Thu proposed that the government creates good conditions for localities and enterprises that have workers from other regions to build houses for the workers because many employers want to provide houses for their workers but run into regulations prohibiting the building of houses in IZs and difficulties in site clearance if building outside of IZs.

The government had asked the Ministry of Construction to map out a social housing project. Under the project, workers working in IZs and export processing zones (EPZ) would have chances to buy and rent houses at low prices. However, the project is for the future, but workers’ housing problems in IZs must be resolved immediately.

The NA Committee for Social Affairs warned that strikes would be more serious in the near future. To solve the issue, according to Nguyen Duc Kien, chairman of the NA Committee for the Economy and State Budget, one of the important solutions is to reform the salary policy, social insurance, subsidies and ensure the equality of workers in different economic sectors.

Source: Vietnam Economic Times