VietNamNet Bridge – What bosses feared did not occur: 95 percent of workers in industrial zones (IZs) and export processing zones (EPZ) in the south east provinces have come back to work after Tet.

The labor shortage, which happened in most of the previous years, does not repeat this year.

By February 4, or the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the enterprises in the southern industrial Dong Nai province had seen 95 percent of their workers coming back to their works. By February 7, the figure had increased to 98 percent, while 100 percent of workers are expected to come to work by February 10.

Nguyen Tan Tu, Chair of the Trade Union of Chanshin Vietnam in Thanh Phu IZ in Dong Nai province, noted that this is the first year the company receives so many workers back.

Only five percent of workers have not come back to work, according to Tu. However, this is foreseeable by the company’s leadership. The workers, mostly from the north, warned before that they would take the annual leave.

The IZs and EPZs in HCM City have also reported the high percentages of over 90 percent of workers coming back to work. Pongchen, Vina Seung and Changshin reportedly sent coaches to the north to pick up 2,000 workers back to HCM City.

Nguyen Van Tuan, a worker of IGM Company in Tan Thuan EPZ, said the workers here have resumed their works on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year already. “We have to fulfill a lot of orders. Besides, we have been treated well,” he explained.

About 10 banderoles with the notices on job vacancies were seen hung at the entrance door to the Tan Thuan EPZ in district 7, HCM City. However, the number of workers wanted is not as high as in previous years.

According to Nguyen Van Buoi from the Personnel Division of FunKook Saigon, which makes briefcases and handbags, the company is now seeking 200 workers, offering the monthly pay of VND5 million on average.

“We are not lacking personnel now like in the previous years,” he said, explaining the low number of wanted workers.

It regularly happened in the previous years that workers returned to the home villages to enjoy Tet holidays and did not come back to work after the holidays. As a result, a lot of enterprises suffered from the serious labor shortage and could not fulfill the contracts.

Buoi said that workers nowadays don’t give up jobs regularly as they did in the past because of the better pay and allowances.

Nguyen Hoang Minh, a worker of Phuc Duy Wooden Furniture Company in Song Than IZ said the company has been looking for 600 workers, but there have been only few candidates.

Tran Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of the HCM City Human Resource Center, has confirmed that the labor shortage does not happen this year.

The local enterprises now need about 20,000 blue collar workers, the figure which is only equal to 1/3 of two years ago.

Also according to Tuan, the labor shortage is lower than five percent, which occurs mostly at the small businesses in the trade or service sectors. The IZs and EPZs in HCM City now need 5,000 more workers only.

Mai Chi