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The Social Impacts of The Global Economic Crisis On Enterprises and Workers in Vietnamese Industrial Parks: A Rapid Assessment Report
The Social Impacts of The Global Economic Crisis On Enterprises and Workers in Vietnamese Industrial Parks: A Rapid Assessment Report
For the Viet Nam Academy of Social Sciences, with support from
Oxfam GB and the World Bank
July 2010
For this study of the social impact of the global economic crisis on the
formal sector in Vietnam, interviews were carried out with four
enterprises and 23 workers at industrial parks near Ha Noi. Four key
findings have been extrapolated: businesses have been trying to retain
some production and skilled workforce despite lack of orders by a variety
of strategies; nonetheless there has been huge unemployment; those still
employed have reduced income and raised living costs; workers are
responding to this by: accepting lower-paid jobs, waiting for more
vacancies on the industrial parks, studying, or returning to their home
towns; loss of remittances for education is impacting workers and their
families, but the impact of home areas is otherwise low or unknown.
1. Background information
The research for this section was conducted in early 2009 at two industrial parks near
Hanoi, Thang Long Industrial Park and Quang Minh Industrial Park. Originally, the
research was planned to focus only on Thang Long Industrial Park. However, the
response rate from enterprises located in Thang Long Industrial Park was unusually low.
Only two enterprises out of nearly 50 contacted agreed to meet with the researchers,
although the research team made considerable efforts to increase the response rate.2 This
may be explained by the difficult situation that enterprises are currently facing. They
hesitate to disclose information at this sensitive time. Therefore, the research team
decided to conduct further interviews with enterprise owners at a similar park, Quang
Minh Industrial Park. These interviews were only possible thanks to personal contacts
and connections. Quang Minh is a good substitute for Thang Long Industrial Park for
several reasons. Firstly, like Thang Long Park, Quang Minh Park mainly hosts investors
from Japan. Secondly, Quang Minh Industrial Park is located quite close to Thang Long
Industrial Park (they are on the same road from Noi Bai airport to Hanoi city centre, only
15 minutes drive away from each other). In total, the research teams conducted four
interviews with enterprise owners, two in Thang Long Industrial Park and two in Quang
Minh Industrial Park.
2
2. Major findings3
The impact of the economic crisis
To varying degrees, almost all FDI enterprises, from hi-tech to labour intensive, in the
two industrial parks are being affected by the economic crisis. There is evidence that
labour-intensive enterprises are more likely to be affected. The economic crisis has hit
investors in the parks quite hard. Most of the factories have cut back their production,
only one or two being able to maintain their production levels. With the economic crisis
unfolding since November/December 2008, the production of investors in the Thang-
Long and Quang Minh industrial parks has contracted significantly, especially for
electronics and automobile manufacturers, and other sub-contractors, due to the fact that
they are export-oriented manufacturers. For example, the severe situation in Thang Long
Industrial Park can be seen in the fact that industrial water usage within the park has
decreased by 3040%.4
Although no mass cancellation of orders has taken place, there is evidence that the
number of orders has dropped significantly. As a result, the sales and production of
these FDI enterprises has dropped significantly, in some cases sales decreasing by 30
40% (Nissin), and even 50% (Inoac). The cancellations of orders and drop in production
and sales are due to a significant drop in export demand, as these companies are set up
in the industrial parks for the purpose of producing for the export market.5
In 2008, the demand for labour was very high and it was difficult to recruit enough
employees. Vacancies were abundant and employees could shop around for good jobs.
However, the situation has changed dramatically since November 2008. The demand for
labour is virtually zero, there are no vacancies to be found.
Although no direct evidence of financial strain was reported during the interviews, it
seems that investors in the Thang Long Park have had to plan a financing scheme to deal
with the current financial difficulties. In particular, the Thang Long Management Board
(an FDI firm) has had to re-schedule rent payment for many tenants (from advance
payment to monthly payment).
Coping strategies
In the face of the economic recession, all the enterprises interviewed are cutting back
their costs using various strategies.
Cost-saving
The companies interviewed were found to have cut costs by intensifying their cost
savings such as cutting back on electricity, office materials and labour cost (examples
include no over-time payments, reducing the number of work shifts, paying 70% wages
for days off and encouraging workers to take holidays).
3
The FDI enterprises in TLIP prefer a workers voluntary resignation rather than a
redundancy in downsizing, as redundancies need to follow a strict procedure
stipulated by the Labour Code and may affect the companys prestige. In fact, the
representative of the TLIP developer comments that none of the reported 3 000 workers
who have lost their jobs in the past several months were made redundant.
Regarding permanent workers who have often received training, the decision is more
difficult for the employers. They tend to keep key and important staff while encouraging
the less skilled to resign. The employers do not lay off their employees in a
straightforward manner. They instead encourage voluntary redundancy, whereby the
workers will submit their resignation in return for some benefits such as a lump-sum
payment equivalent to one or two months wages. Another factor is that the economic
down-turn occurred at the annual Tet holiday; this encouraged workers to hand in their
resignation to get the compensation money to go back home for Tet.
However, laying-off, especially for permanent employees, seems to be a difficult decision
for investors due to the cost of re-hiring and training later. As a result they have adopted
several tactics such as work-sharing schemes, encouraging employees to take long
holidays and paying 70% of wages for employees to stay at home for some time. At the
same time, to keep up the morale of the remaining employees, while still paying their
wages, they ask them employees to do such things as cleaning and maintaining the
factories.
Stock-piling
Firms that produce mainly for export, in order to keep their employees expecting the
current economic recession to be over soon, have tried to maintain a minimum level of
production, and keep stock-piling.
4
B. Impacts on workers in Thang Long industrial
park6
Most migrant workers have to rent a place to live. Not every enterprise has a dormitory
for migrant workers. Even migrant workers for big enterprises which have hostels felt
uncomfortable with the hostel regulations because they often work overtime and late
shifts. Two or three workers share a room of eight to ten square metres.
One characteristic of IP workers is their specific position in a production line. To
undertake a certain role in a mass production line, the worker is given a short training
period (maximum about 1 month for technical work and just 2 days for simple jobs). As
working in a production line requires different actions for each role, there are no big
differences in skills between newly-recruited and experienced workers. However, young
workers have an advantage in a working environment of high pressure for accuracy,
concentration, speed and productivity.
As a certain position in a production line may not require very high qualifications, most
of workers obtain only an upper secondary education.8 High school graduates are able to
find work after passing entrance tests of simple skills. Faced with rush orders and lack of
workers, enterprises will also recruit lower secondary graduates. Only technical
positions require higher education qualifications.
Shift working is a principal requirement for IP workers. Enterprises can divide
production into three shifts (e.g. 6 am2 pm, 2 pm10 pm, and 10 pm6am the next day)
or 2 shifts (e.g. day shift from 8 am to 8:30 :pm, and night shift from 8:30 pm to 8 am the
next day). According to the Labour Code, shift and overtime work paid at at least one
and a half times normal pay. Under high pressure of productivity and volume, shift
work and overtime for rush orders are very hard even for young workers.
Most of the workers are female.9 The proportion of women depends on the
characteristics of the work and products. In factories doing work such as electronics
assembly, women
5
account for 90 per cent of the workers. On the other hand, male workers are the majority
in motorbike factories, or heavy and harmful jobs.
About 80% of workers are unmarried, said those interviewed.10 Many female workers
think of getting married after some years working in the IP. Some other workers over the
advantageous age of 1824 try to focus on hard work to earn money while their health is
good enough for the IP production environment. On the other hand, shift work of 12
hours a day is hard to combine with marriage and having children.
Migrant workers are characterized by relatively high social capital. Workers from the
same home town or living in the same hostel often support each other by such means as
informing each other about job opportunities, lending money, recommending well-paid
jobs, etc. When 6070% of labourers from the commune of origin migrate for work, the
base of information available from their network is huge, said a female worker.
Information from an IP worker from the same home town helped him to avoid paying
millions of dong to an employment agency, said a worker from Vinh Phuc province.
Workers do not highly value the trade unions role due to its irregular activities and poor
support in terms of job information and labour contracts.
6
2. The economic crisis boom and IP workers
unemployment
The fourth quarter of 2008 is considered to have marked the peak of the laying-off of IP
workers due to the economic crisis. Many companies have cut jobs and made
redundancies since October 2008, leading to a sharp increase in numbers of laid-off
workers. The workers interviewed describe large numbers of workers crowding and
some even crying on the road in front of the IP entrance when thousands lost jobs in
November 2008.
The first quarter of 2009 has still seen redundancies on smaller scales. According to the
Thang Long IP Management Board, in the two months before lunar New Year 2009
alone, nearly 1 000 workers in the IP became jobless solely due to enterprises cutting jobs
(Viet Nam Express, 2009) (Box 2).
The peak in cutting jobs before Tet seems to coincide with the business cycle in IPs when
1-year contracts of workers come to an end. Annually, enterprises start new recruitment
after the Tet holiday. Then, before the lunar New Year (Tet holiday), many of workers
who had completed their 1-year contracts were informed their labour contracts would
not be extended.
7
3. The economic crisis Changes in IP workers jobs
and income
3.1. Current employees11
a. Changes of job and productivity
Workload in IP factories has experienced a huge drop. For instance, working time
decreases from 1012 hours before to about 4 hours per day, only 34 days per week,
with no working overtime or shifts or during the weekend (Saturday and Sunday).
Only some production lines remain in operation with low productivity (Box 3) where
workers take 1015 minutes rest after each 5 minutes working. In lines without any
operation, workers are arranged to do other things such as cleaning, storing, cutting
grass, etc. In case of no more odd jobs remaining to be done, workers are still in their
lines without doing anything.
b. Changes in incomes
Enterprises, in difficult time, can seek for some cost saving solutions but cannot reduce
the basic salary of workers, for two reasons. Firstly, basic salaries in other sectors, and the
labour market in general, are rising. Secondly, the trend to increase salaries in other
enterprises in the IP as one way to attract workers, especially in times of rush orders,
itself means enterprises cannot cut salaries. Enterprises have to increase salaries or else
deal with worker strikes (Box 4).
Thus, in order to attract workers, it is impossible to reduce salaries. In fact, basic salaries
have increased in 2008 and the growth rate is about eight per cent annually.
Despite a small increase in basic salary in 2008, workers income still fell sharply as their
incomes were mainly from working overtime and extra shifts. In the past, workers were
paid about 2 million dong per month for working 12 hours a day, 4 days a week. They
even could earn about 3 million dong per month if they worked more overtime in
Saturday and Sunday, got the best qualification rank of level A, and had management
allowances. In the economic crisis, no overtime or extra work due to lack of orders has
reduced their income to the basis salary alone, at about 1.3 million dong per month.
Moreover, if those workers receive 70% of their salary for rotational days off instead of
an outright lay-off, their income sits at only about 1 million dong per month. That
8
income is unsustainable in the context of increasing prices and living costs in the IP (Box
5).
In addition to their basic salary, workers are often paid extra monthly allowances such as
200 000 dong for transport, 50 000 dong for regular attendance, overtime allowances, or
50 000 dong for accommodation. Team leaders can get extra management allowances per
month, e.g. 50 000 dong or even 300 000-500 000 dong for higher management level.
Workers can get 200 000 dong as hazard allowance for such jobs as thermal treatment.
By taking out social and healthcare insurance over a year, workers are granted a social
insurance book. Female workers can enjoy maternity benefits. However, most female
workers are unmarried and sometimes constrained by internal regulations to work over
six months before marriage.
The crisis has led to cuts in allowances. Rotational daysoff on request by the enterprise
precludes a regular attendance allowance. Enterprises announce they will drop some
allowances such as travel. At the same time, labour qualification ranking and cutting the
salaries of less-qualified workers is also a way to cut down workers income in the crisis.
c. Changes in labour contract terms
Newly recruited workers normally have a 3 month contract of training on the job first,
then a 1-year, and then 3-year or long-term contracts. In fact, most workers in North
Thang Long IP have contracts of 3 years as the longest duration due to the IPs recent
establishment.
Since October 2008, aware of coming difficulties, enterprises have only signed short-term
contracts of just 3 or 6 months. Labour screening can be seen in qualification ranking and
contract extension duration. In detail, in order to keep skilled workers, enterprises sign 1-
year contracts with them but shorter ones with less skilled workers. However,
enterprises can still fail to keep workers on 1-year contracts when they grow frustrated
with getting only 70% of their salaries for rotational days off instead of an outright
redundancy.
9
Box 6 Labour ranking or screening? Voluntary redundancy for
unemployment benefits upon fear of dismissal
Enterprise under Corporation X: in total 5 000 workers in this enterprise were announced to
be voluntarily unemployed due to the lack of orders. The enterprise provides unemployment
benefits for the first 2 000 volunteers. Therefore, worry about becoming jobless without
benefits hurries workers to submit proposals to end contracts.
Labour ranking in Company Y: Workers in a production line have to self-assess their
production performance from A as the best to B, C and D. Bonuses for the lunar new year of
2009 was 14 000 dong for level D, 500000 for level C, 1.4 million for level B, and 1.7 million
for level A, which have to account for 1, 10, 70 and 19% of the total workers, respectively.
Labour ranking in Company Z: Similarly, workers rank themselves into in level A (15% of the
total), level B (30%), level C (20%), and level D (the remaining 35%). Workers were given
130% of the lunar month salary as bonus for Tet 2008, but only one-month salary plus 500
000 dong for level A in Tet 2009 (300 000, and 150 000 dong for levels B and C respectively,
and nothing extra for D).
Labour ranking, on the one hand, is the basis for the Tet bonus. On the other hand, it
implies unqualified workers of levels C and D should fear unemployment without
benefits. Those workers consequently voluntarily submit proposals to end their contracts
to get unemployment benefits.
Additionally, a group of workers become jobless after a period in which they become
frustrated with rotational days off or too poorly-paid jobs. Despite their expectation of
having one or two months wages as unemployment benefit and getting new jobs with
higher salaries somewhere else, workers now struggle to find new jobs during the crisis.
Price increases and too low salaries led to the voluntary resignation of a female worker in
Company X as her monthly salary of 1 200 000 dong and 200 000 more in allowances fail
to cover her daily expenses.
Unplanned dismissal cases because of breaches of production regulations have risen in
the crisis period. Interviewees mentioned tightened supervision and even the smallest
mistakes such as being a few minutes late arriving or wearing a necklace leading to
certain dismissal. This never happened before the crisis.
b. No income
Due to regularly working overtime, most IP workers do not have the time and energy to
do second jobs. As a consequence, being laid off means the loss of their sole income for
daily expenses. They then depend on the unemployment benefit received from the
enterprise. This benefit is quite different among different enterprises. In most cases it was
one or two months salary or even less (Box 7). The maximum benefit is two months
salary, while unemployment has continued for about half of this year or even since the
middle of last year.
Among laid-off workers, those ranked pointing group 1 were dismissed without any
unemployment benefit, and workers in ranks 34 receive half a months salary
allowance for being jobless.
Laid-off workers cannot find income from secondary and new jobs, and so can only hang
around their hostel and watch the IP notice board for job opportunities.
10
c. Support by enterprises
The Prime Minister has requested that a policy be drawn up to provide for laid-off
workers; however, it has not been specified by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and
Social Affairs. According to the Labour Code, the employer has to pay unemployment
benefit of one months salary for each year worked. In practice, not all enterprises are
able to implement such a benefit.
In the crisis, enterprises face too many difficulties to provide high unemployment
benefits for laid-off workers. Enterprises apply different redundancy policies. They often
pay one months salary for voluntarily redundant workers. Some workers get two
months salary, where it can be clearly seen that if those workers are laid off before Tet
then one months salary is basically their Tet bonus. Workers recruited less than a year
ago get only half of a months salary for redundancy. No benefit is paid for workers
caught making mistakes or dismissed due to their low labour ranking or incompliance
with enterprises regulations.
There is also a lack of travel support for laid-off migrant workers. Relations with
enterprises come to an end when workers return their uniforms and working tools and
leave the factory. The last contact is only sending their last months salary and other
benefits via an ATM account at the end of the month, and handing over the social
insurance book six months later (where they have worked for over a year). In practice,
workers neither withdraw money from the social insurance book nor keep it to continue
the system participation. Most laid-off workers have only been recruited a few months
before and so lose the benefits of the contributions they have already made to the social
insurance scheme. They have not recognised the social insurance role.
d. Changes in job opportunities
Before the crisis, labour mobility was very high even within the IP. Workers could find
better jobs thanks to various recruitment announcements with specific salaries. For
instance, workers could leave their existing heavy and high-pressure job to apply for
better jobs with lighter workloads and higher incomes in other enterprises.
After Tet, the IP notice board was often covered fully by recruitment announcements for
hundreds of workers. But currently, there are few announcements for few positions, e.g.
four workers only. Ouright or temporarily redundant workers are faced with difficulties
finding new jobs in every enterprise. These workers are willing to apply for any suitable
position without consideration of salary.
11
4. Impacts of the crisis on IP workers lives: How do
they cope?
4.1. Current employees
Cut down expenses, no savings and remittances for families
Workers are trying to save on all their expenses during the crisis (Box 8). The first item to
be cut down is meals. No breakfast, only one self-cooked meal with cheap vegetables and
tofu when a better one with meat or fish is served at work. This allows them to save
about 500 000 dong per month for meals. Then, they try to save spending on travel, and
mobile charges are lowered by sending textmessages instead of making phone calls.
Another male worker spends about 160 000 dong monthly on rent, 100 000 dong for
meals when self-catering which is very rarely, otherwise 10 00015 000 for a meal at
restaurants, 150 000 dong for a birthday party, 50 000200 000 dong on a marriage
present depending on relationship, on tobacco, etc. They fall into debt, or also try to
reduce all spending.
In addition, some workers face the risk of rent increases when their old roommates
become unemployed and return to their home areas, and there is no one to share the rent
with. They may agree to move to a hostel further away to share the rent with others. In
case of illness, pregnancy or dependent children, workers also face the risk of health
expenses.
Before the crisis, workers earned enough income from overtime and extra shifts to save.
Older female workers proved themselves good thrift practitioners and saved more than
their juniors. They sent money to their families to save or in preparation for marriage.
Female workers could have monthly savings of about 500 000 to 800 000, or even 1
million dong. Some other workers can save three to four sums of 500 000600 000 dong
per year. However, it is also common to see that young workers without duties to
support or take care of the household are unaware of or unable to keep savings due to
their low salaries.
At the moment, it is impossible for workers to save. On the contrary, savings from the
past are now being spent while waiting for new jobs. No savings mean no remittances.
When workers cannot cut down their already tightened consumption any further, they
borrow from each other or from friends in their home towns. Instead of sending
remittances to their families, these workers even ask for money from family and friends
in their home areas. (Box 9).
12
Another male worker receiving 70 per cent of salary for rotational days off borrowed 500
000 dong from a friend in his home town when he was back home for rice last month. He
cannot borrow from his roommates or colleagues because they are in the same difficult
situation.
Staying at hostels and looking for jobs with psychological changes
Being laid off or on rotational days off, workers staying at hostels fall into lethargy and
depression. Under high pressure of dismissal and contract termination (Box 10) as well as
fear of no unemployment benefits, workers volunteer to stop working to get one or two
months salary as unemployment benefit.
The more days they have to take off, the more frustrated workers are. They always worry
about being laid off for a half or full month. Due to the stress of being laid off and failure
to find new jobs, workers can do nothing except gossip with others.
Return to home towns in the short term to wait for job opportunities
Most workers, especially whose home towns are near to the IP, facing long periods of
days off and having high social capital for job information, intend to return to their home
towns to wait for job opportunities. Returning to their home towns can help workers to
save daily expenses when faced with inadequate incomes. It may be done after only two
or three days off if workers come from provinces surrounding Hanoi and travel back
does not cost them much. This strategy can be easily recognized by the fact that 5070%
of rooms in each hostel, or even 100%, are unlet.
Apart from the above three risk reduction strategies, a small percentage of workers who
already have experience and information from secondary jobs try to find other jobs
(despite lower salaries) in the IP (such as working in the kitchen) or outside as
mechanics, hair-dressers assistants, cooking, delivering meals, etc. Facing difficulties
finding this kind of work due to unclear information on day-off duration, workers with
70 per cent of their salaries for rotational days off can only hang around in their hostel,
watching the notice board without any plan for earning.
Some workers studying at the technical school spend more time on studying. The North
Thang Long Technical and Economics School is close to the IP and about 70 per cent of its
students are IP workers. The school has arranged favourable conditions for workers to
follow courses in the crisis period (Box 11).
Box 11 Support for IP workers who are studying at the Technical School
In early 2009, after a petition from 125 outright laid-off and rotational day-off workers, the
School encouraged these students to take advantages of days off for studying and began to
support them by certification for getting social loans for students (about 30% of total
students), three months extra time to pay educational fees, fee collection by appropriate
term, assessment results remaining applicable for one to two years not studying study, and
maintaining contacts with IP enterprises for job information.
13
Workers find it hard to work twelve hours and then another four and a half hours for classes
every day. They are afraid of informing their employers about their studies due to fear of
making managers worry about reduced productivity.
14
5. Other consequences of unemployment in the
economic crisis
Impact on other household members
Most migrant workers are young and single and leave their home towns for non-
agricultural jobs in order to ease the burden on their families due to landlessness. They
therefore have little responsibility for household income when they are. As a result, the
impact of unemployment in the economic crisis through loss of remittances from migrant
workers seems to be low.
However, in cases where brothers or sisters migrated together and some did so for study,
then becoming outright unemployed or on rotational days off is a serious problem as
regards remittances to support their siblings education (Box 12). In other cases of
working and studying at the same time, redundant workers have to ask for money from
home for their daily expenses and fees for ongoing courses. As a consequence, the
financial burden on their family can become heavier.
Having a brother in university and parents in his home town, another worker on days
off, K, sent money to his brother 3 times last year and one time this year (before Tet),
sending 400 000500 000 dong each time. He is now not only unable to send money for
his brother but has also borrowed 500 000 dong for daily expenses. He now spends 200
000 dong per month on rent, and 400 000 dong on meals (reduced from 1 million
previously).
Impacts on the destination become an issue when laid-off workers and rotational day-off
workers return to their home towns. The landlessness may be serious. As a result,
redundant wage labour is on the rise, since households having land will reduce use of
hired labour or availability of land for rent. The possible increase in redundant labour in
agricultural home towns and its impact remain as yet unstudied.
Impacts on areas surrounding the IP
The main impact on areas surrounding the IP is a reduction in services consumption by
IP migrant workers (Box 14). Most hostels have had to close 70 per cent of their rooms,
despite lower rent, because most workers have returned to their home towns.
Availability of other services for workers has declined proportionately.
15
Villagers had already invested their land compensation of 65 million dong per sao (1
sao=360m2) into hostels for rent, food shops, and other services for IP workers. Providing
hostels for migrant workers become the main livelihood of 200 households in the
commune of over 1,500 households in total. The crisis happened exactly at a time of IP
expansion (Phase 3), when consequently many households had just invested a lot of
money in building hostels. These families suffered from the shock of a drop in demand
for rented accommodation and no income from new rooms.
In terms of local security, the IP surroundings have been often considered unsecure with
problems such as mobile phone and motorbike robbery, theft, etc., for a long time. This
situation has not worsened since the crisis started. However, a number of laid-off and
day-off workers hanging around the area and having low income pose a potential risk of
increasing crime.
16
Notes
1. Nguyen Ngoc Anh (DEPOCEN).
2. The team first sent an introduction letter from the World Bank and Oxfam, and
followed up by telephone calls.
3. In the context of the economic crisis and recession, Vietnams low wage level is
an important advantage. For this reason the managements will not cut wages or the
number of employees as much as they would in other countries. Cash-flow is very
important and wage is an important element of cash-flow. In some cases, the
management of parent companies may consider shifting production from other countries
to Vietnam.
4. This is also partly reflected in the fact that when the research team contacted
companies to arrange interviews, there were several occasions on which the factories
were temporary closed for some time during the month/week.
5. There are some consistent rumours that companies in certain sectors are not
affected by the economic recession, namely high-tech, pharmaceutical and health
equipment companies. An interviewed high-tech company informed us that their sales
were up 10% year on year, although the year before the number was 30%.
6. Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong (Center for Analysis and Forecasting Vietnam
Academy of Social Sciences), 2/2009.
The research team interviewed 18 female and 5 male workers in total, aged 1927 years
old, at their hostels near Thang Long Industrial Park. They also carried out three focus
group discussions (1 male and 2 female groups). Among the 18 female workers, 5 are
laid off, 7 are on rotational days off with 70% of salary, 5 were working when interviewed
but would afterwards be on rotational days off with 70% of salary, and 1 was then
working. Among them, 5 are students in a vocational school nearby the industrial park.
Among 5 male workers, 3 are currently working (2 in kitchens) and 2 are on rotational
days off with 60 and 70% of salary.
7. Of 16 workers who talked about the reasons for their migration, 9 mentioned
landlessness in their home town. 5 talked about social networks through which their
friends and relatives informed them about job opportunities after they completed
secondary education. Other reasons mentioned were low income from agriculture (2
workers) and other non-agriculture (2 workers).
8. Out of 18 workers interviewed, 16 finished upper secondary education, but only 2
obtained a college education.
9. According to Vietnam Economics Times (2009), there are 60 per cent women
among 737500 workers in IPs and EPZs in Hanoi.
10. Only 1 married worker among 23 interviewees.
11. Of 23 interviewees, 18 are current workers. However, 9 of them have rotational
days off and 5 more have been informed of coming rotational days off. Workers with
rotational days off only receive 6070% of their salary on those days. One worker was a
team leader who was going to quit the job because of maternity. She would then migrate
back to her home town as the IP working environment is not appropriate for a mother.
12. Five out of 23 interviewees are unemployed. Of those, one voluntarily left the job
to receive two months salary as benefit for unemployment. One left the job because the
income was too low. Three were refused extensions to their labour contracts and did not
mention unemployment benefit. None of them were dismissed because of breaches of
production regulations. These five redundant workers are staying at hostels close to the
IP and searching for new job opportunities.
17
Oxfam GB July 2010
This paper was written by Nguyen Ngoc Anh (DEPOCEN) and Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong (Center
for Analysis and Forecasting Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences). Oxfam acknowledges the
assistance of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences Center for Analysis and Forecasting and
World Bank Vietnam in its production.
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For further information on the issues raised in this paper please e-mail
advocacy@oxfaminternational.org.
The information in this publication is correct at the time of going to press.
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(www.intermonoxfam.org), Oxfam Ireland (www.oxfamireland.org), Oxfam Mexico
(www.oxfammexico.org), Oxfam New Zealand (www.oxfam.org.nz), Oxfam Novib
(www.oxfamnovib.nl), Oxfam Quebec (www.oxfam.qc.ca)
The following organizations are currently observer members of Oxfam, working towards full
affiliation:
Oxfam India (www.oxfamindia.org)
Oxfam Japan (www.oxfam.jp)
Ucodep (Italy) www.ucodep.org
Please write to any of the agencies for further information, or visit www.oxfam.org. Email:
advocacy@oxfaminternational.org
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