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Industries hard hit by workforce shortage
The issue of most concern to producers of garment, textile, leather, and shoes at present is not how many orders they will get, but is a serious shortage of workers, a SGGP survey has found.
Many businesses in Ho Chi Minh City and southeastern provinces have been facing a serious lack of workers for many months now. Last year, for instance, a large enterprise with nearly 3,000 workers saw their strength reduce by 700. Many companies are afraid the situation can get worse after the upcoming Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday this year.
To ease the situation, some have implemented new policies to retain their workers and attract new ones, including offering bonuses despite poor business performance last year because of the impacts of the global economic crisis. Others have decided to give staff members a long Tet holiday, from 8-10 to 21 February.
Compared to textile and garment companies, leather and shoe producers are worse hit by the labor shortage.
The country now has about 2,000 textile and garment companies with around two million employees, while 500 producers of leather and shoes employ 650,000 workers.
Of these leather and shoe companies, foreign-invested enterprises account for about 75 percent, and many, including those invested by China and Taiwan, shut down last year following the global crisis.
The shutdowns resulted in a large number of workers losing their jobs, but many companies failed to recruit them for different reasons, including wage and working conditions.
HCM City-based Gia Dinh Shoe Co., Ltd. recently built a new plant in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province but they are not able to operate it with only 100 workers recruited so far.
Similarly, Tan My Garment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the Saigon Garment Manufacturing Trade JSC, in the province’s Tan Thanh District, faces a lack of workers although they have offered salaries of up to VND2.5-3 million per month and built dormitories for staff members.
To improve the situation, many companies in HCM City have sought assistance from other localities. Ngo Trung Kien, general director of the Saigon 2 Garment JSC, said that he has successfully cooperated with authorities of Khanh Son District, Khanh Hoa Province, to recruit and train workers in situ.
Pham Xuan Hong, chairman of the HCM City Association of Garments, Textiles, Embroidery and Knitting (Agtek), said the association has posted announcements of recruitment on its website but was yet to get enough workers.
“Agtek will set up a ‘labor floor’ on which its affiliates can seek or exchange workers,” he said.
“Redundant workers from some companies can work for other firms that are short of workers,” he explained.
My Hanh – Truc Thinh
SGGP
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