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Workshop forced to close after Chinese partner flees
All 400 workers at a workshop owned by the Saigon Leather Products and Footwear Export-Import company (Leaprodexim Saigon) have lost their jobs, following the termination of a contract by the company’s Chinese partner, a local newspaper reports.
In a letter sent to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Chinese Consulate General, and HCM City and Go Vap District authorities, Nguyen Bao Tho, general director of Leaprodexim Saigon, said the "unilateral contract termination of its Chinese partner" had resulted in non-payment of salaries.
He said the EU’s anti-dumping tariffs on Vietnamese-made leather shoes and caps had created financial difficulties for the Chinese partner Nanhai New ATT (ATT), which had signed a contract with the company in 1997.
Unguaranteed payments from ATT and fewer orders had led to the workshop’s permanent closure, Tho was quoted by Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer) newspaper as saying.
Under the 1997 agreement, ATT was to provide all raw materials to Leaprodexim Saigon for shoe and leather exports to Europe, Mexico and the US, and was to be responsible for workers’ salaries.
ATT owes more than US$80,000 in salary payments to Leaprodexim Saigon, according to Leaprodexim Saigon spokespeople.
Leaprodexim Saigon on October 5 said ATT withdrew all of seven of its technical specialists from its plant in Viet Nam.
The company tried to contact ATT but was unsuccessful, Tho said.
Many workers, who were paid only VND100,000 (US$6.2) in September, said they feared they would not receive severance pay, which is required under Vietnamese law.
"The company must consult authorities before deciding what it is going to do," Pham Ngoc Doan, chairman of the Go Vap District Labour Federation, said.
Leaprodexim Saigon’s representatives said workers’ rights would be guaranteed.
Nguyen Thi Dan of the Department of Labour, Invalid Wars and Social Affairs said workers were entitled to severance pay if they were not reassigned to another job.
VNN
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