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Southern IZ, EPZ crying for workers
Enterprises in industrial zones (IZ) and economic processing zones (EPZ) are now facing a serious labour shortage which has forced them to scramble for workers.
Reports from local labour departments in the south all show that enterprises in the localities are seriously lacking workers. Binh Duong province needs 41,000 workers, while Dong Nai needs 25,000. Long An, a province which has fewer workshops and factories, also needs to employ 5,000 workers.
HCM City proves to be the locality which is facing the most serious labour shortage. The city’s labour department has said it needs some 61,000 workers. Nearly all enterprises in IZs and EPZs in the city have released notices on hiring workers, but there have been few candidates.
Nguyen Thanh Tung, Director of the Job Centre under the HCM City IZ and EPZ management board (Hepza), said that enterprises have ordered 11,000 workers with the centre, but the centre cannot meet the demand.
Representative from Nidec Tosok said that it is now much more difficult to recruit workers than in previous years. The company has spent money on advertising and used brokerage services, but it is still 1,000 workers short.
The company has lowered the requirements for candidates (candidates just have to have graduated 9th grade instead of 12th grade) and offers a lot of preferences.
‘Enticing’ labourers
As labour demand far exceeds supply, enterprises have to ‘entice’ labourers with preferences. Some companies have even offered ‘bogus’ preferences to get workers.
At the entrance of a company in Tan Thuan EPZ, a big banderole was hanging which said the company needed to recruit workers and offered a lot of preferences. The offered pay proved to be ‘relatively attractive’. However, reporters of Tien phong newspaper, who acted as workers seeking jobs, were told that they should not believe the advertisement.
Truong Thanh Ngoc Kieu, who called herself a senior worker, said that she could get 1.3 million dong a month and her highest income is just 1.7-1.8 million dong, including overtime working. Kieu said that the work was too hard and the pay was too low, therefore, she gave up the job and left for another company which offers higher salary.
Many other workers who were waiting there to get salaries said the same thing. Some of them hadn’t found new jobs, but were going to quit because they did not want to work there anymore.
The workers showed Tien phong’s reporters some companies which they said were offering better working conditions and higher pay.
In fact, a lot of enterprises have been trying to lure workers with ‘virtual’ preferences.
A labour expert said that H Company in Tan Thuan IZ in HCM City once recruited workers from western provinces, offering very attractive salaries. However, the company only paid the promised salary for the first month of working, while it reduced the pay in the second month and delayed payment from the third month. The recruited workers still had to stay to work for the company because they had left their homes in western provinces.
The labour shortage has caused headaches for many enterprises. They dare not accept more orders from partners because they fear they cannot get enough workers. Meanwhile, other enterprises which have taken orders have to ask workers to work overtime. The hard work and hard pressure both have led to strikes at many enterprises, which also explains why labour disputes in HCM City and neighbouring provinces have become hotter.
VietNamNet, TP
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