The Vietnam Labor Federation has proposed that the government ask the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) to design a plan to cut the number of weekly working hours to below 48, which would improve productivity.

A report of the Department of Work Safety released in 2019 showed that Vietnam has the highest number of working hours in Southeast Asia and lowest number of off-work days.

The working time of Vietnamese workers is 2,320 hours a year, the figure which is lower than that of the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, and higher than Singapore, Indonesia, Laos and Cambodia. Every year a person is entitled to 12 days’ leave with pay, which is lower than Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia, and higher than Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. 

Vietnamese workers are entitled to 11 days of holidays, the same as Singapore’s, but this is the lowest figure in Southeast Asia.

In reality, many enterprises apply the 44-hour working hour regime, under which workers don’t have to work on Saturday afternoon and Sunday, or alternatively they have one whole Saturday working day for every two weeks.

However, the regime is mostly applied to managerial officers and office workers, while most factory workers, especially in labor intensive industries, tend to work overtime to get extra money.

According to Ta Van Duong from the Hanoi Labor Federation, Vietnamese policy makers should approach the world’s common trend of reducing working hours to help workers rebuild their work power.

Duong disagrees with the review that if Vietnam cuts working hours, productivity will decrease, stressing that productivity not only depends on number of working hours, but on many other factors as well, including technology and business administration.

Pham Thu Lan, deputy director of the Institute of Workers and Trade Union (IWTU), agrees that it would be better to reduce working hour limits to ensure fairness for workers at both state agencies and enterprises.

“Factory workers always complain about unfairness. They say while state officers have 40 working hours a week and have two-day weekend, factory workers have to work 48 hours,” Lan said.

The expert said while the number of official working hours of factory workers is very high, they still want to work overtime to improve their income. The number of extra working hours has increased by twofold over the last 10 years.

Furthermore, the policy of reducing working hours can serve as an effective tool to regulate investment and business activities in Vietnam, helping gradually reduce labor-intensive industries.

Once Vietnamese working conditions improve, foreign investors in Vietnam will have to increase their investment in technology and carry out production restructuring, not just exploit the cheap labor force as currently seen.

Roadmap for working hour cut needed

According to former Deputy Minister of MOLISA Pham Minh Huan, this is not a new proposal. Involved parties in the past have many times proposed working hour reduction, but the proposal was not considered.

Agreeing with the proposal on the cut, Huan stressed that this is the common target of workers all over the world, not only in Vietnam.

However, in the special conditions of Vietnam, it is necessary to design a roadmap for the cut and improve productivity, raise salary and reorganize staff.

Currently, pay to workers is calculated based on numbers of working hours. As productivity remains low and the average income is low, workers’ income will decrease if they have fewer working hours.

Huan said that at present, many enterprises are suffering from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, so the working hour cut can only be implemented if enterprises and workers prepare for this. When the national economy recovers, involved parties will be able to begin discussing working hour cuts after 2030.

Nguyen Quoc Viet from the University of Economics, a member school of the Hanoi National University, said Vietnam is a lower average income country, so though the productivity has improved, it is still lower than that of other regional countries.

Therefore, he believes that it would be better to discuss the working power cut when Vietnam becomes a country with higher average income.

Vu Diep