Proposal to reduce working hours, establish a reasonable minimum wage

On the morning of May 26, presenting a speech at the Forum "Improving national labor productivity in 2024", Chairman of the trade union of Changshin Vietnam Company Dang Tuan Tu said that labor productivity is a decisive factor in the development of an enterprise and the competitiveness of the economy.

Improving and promoting labor productivity is the shortest way to develop the economy quickly and sustainably, keeping up with the level of other countries.

Mr. Dang Tuan Tu suggested that when the Trade Union Law is amended, the Government and the National Assembly continue to support the 2% contribution from enterprises to create the best conditions for activities to care for employees and retain employees with the enterprise.

Mr. Dang Tuan Tu also suggested that the Government develop a roadmap to reduce working hours from 48 hours/week to 44 hours/week and 40 hours/week to be consistent and keep up with other countries in the region.

Reducing working hours will create conditions for workers to have longer rest time to restore their health and take care of family happiness.

The Chairman of the Trade Union of Changshin Vietnam Company said that the current Labor Law stipulates that employees work under normal conditions no more than 8 hours per day and 48 hours per week. Enterprises have the right to regulate working hours by day or week but must notify employees.

Establish a fair minimum wage

At the forum, Dr. Pham Thu Lan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Workers and Trade Unions (Vietnam General Confederation of Labor) said that a satisfactory salary, bonus and welfare regime is an important driving force to promote increased labor productivity.

Even though employees want to stick with a company, they cannot stay with it forever when the salary is low. This explains why the rate of "job-hopping" in our country is quite high.

Ms. Lan said that a business has 1,000 workers, but if every month there are 100 workers continuously coming in and out, the business will have to spend a lot of time, effort, money and human resources on recruitment advertising, organizing interviews, procedures, records, documents, employee training... While these costs can be completely saved to invest in increasing productivity.

According to Ms. Lan, moving from a low-income country to a middle-income country is much easier than from a middle-income country to a high-income country.

International experience shows that productivity growth in the coming period cannot rely on continuing on the path we have taken, but requires a transformation of the model and economy, along with a transformation of employment, workforce and skills.

To successfully implement this transformation, salary, bonus and welfare policies play an extremely important role. Therefore, Ms. Lan proposed to establish a satisfactory minimum wage.

A decent minimum wage should not only cover the basic necessities of workers and their families, but also provide for contingencies and savings for the future.

The Trade Union representative hopes that the Government will direct the National Wage Council in the coming time to research and establish a satisfactory minimum wage, and advise the Government so that wages are truly a driving force for increasing labor productivity.