FESTIVE cheer is missing in major Vietnamese cities and industrial hubs as workers Tet (Lunar New Year) bonuses are affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Vn Express reports that with about two weeks to go before Tet is celebrated, the number of businesses reporting bonus payments was extremely small compared to the number of business registrations.
For the previous year, more than 30,000 businesses nationwide reported Tet bonuses, with workers receiving an average at VND6.36 million, down 5 per cent compared to the previous year, as the country struggled with the first year of Covid.
This year, the government has not officially revealed the Tet bonus figures, although the deadline for localities to report was Dec 29, 2021.
Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest economic hub and for the epicenter of fourth Covid-19 wave, has more than 200,000 businesses operating.
However, only about 1,000 businesses, about 0.5 per cent, have reported Tet bonuses to 175,000 workers.
According to a study by the city's Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the average Tet bonus paid to workers this year is VND8.8 million (US$386.76), the same as last year.
More than 500 of the businesses enterprises that announced Tet bonuses, have been struggling to pay them because of reduced orders and stagnant production.
The study found that the highest bonuses will be paid in the power, electronics, finance, insurance and banking sectors while most small-scale firms will pay out lower bonuses than last year.
Around 1,000 enterprises in the southern province of Dong Nai, home to 1.2 million workers, have reported Tet bonuses that are the same or lower than last year.
The highest bonus paid out in the province was VND800 million – to the CEO of a foreign-invested firm, and the lowest was VND1.75 million.
The Vn Express eport said that around 16,000 workers at a factory of Taiwanese-invested footwear maker Pou Chen Vietnam in Dong Nai Province went on strike last week to protest the company's Tet bonus cuts.
The company announced that employees who have worked for a full year or more will be given bonuses up to 1.54 months' salary.
The highest bonus in 2021 was 1.87 months' salary, and in previous years, 2.2 months.
After negotiations between the leaders of the company and the labour union, the Tet bonus was kept the same as last year and workers returned to work last Wednesday.
Though northern localities were less affected by the fourth coronavirus wave, Hanoi has recorded a slight decrease in Tet bonus payments compared to the previous year.
Hanoi has nearly 318,000 businesses with more than 4.17 million employees but only 6,200 of them, or nearly 2 per cent reported Tet bonus payments.
The average bonus paid by Hanoi firms ranges from VND3.2 to 4.2 million, with the highest one of VND400 million paid by a private enterprise.
Industrial hub Bac Giang, a major coronavirus hotspot last year, has completely restored production. Nearly 280 businesses out of a total of more than 400 operating in the province have reported Tet bonus payments – the highest of nearly VND228 million given by a FDI enterprise and the lowest at just VND100,000.
In Vietnam, bonuses are based on agreements between employers and employees, with the government encouraging firms to reward employees based on performance.
Le Van Thanh, Deputy Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, had said that Tet bonus this year is likely to be equal or even lower than the previous year.
After two years of the pandemic, the backup sources of many businesses are almost exhausted, he added.
