Factories confused about scheduling long holidays

According to the production schedule set up at the beginning of the month, VS Vina Company, operating in the electronics industry in Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone (District 7, Ho Chi Minh City), has a holiday for Hung Kings' Commemoration Day, which is April 18, and at the end of the month there are two consecutive days, April 30 and May 1. During this time, the factory arranges overtime to make up for the empty time to ensure that orders are completed.

However, when the new five-day holiday schedule from April 27 to May 1 was approved on April 12, the factory had to recalculate its production plan. "There are only 14 days left until the holiday, too short to find a perfect solution," said Ms. Nguyen Bich Ngan, Head of Human Resources.

According to Ms. Ngan, 100% FDI enterprises, belonging to the non-state group, are not required to comply but are only encouraged to do so. In theory, the factory does not need to change its production plan, but when information about this long holiday is announced, workers have the mentality of wanting or assuming that they will have a day off.

The manufacturing company works on Saturdays, so when giving 5 consecutive days off, there will be two days that need to be compensated: Saturday (April 27) and Monday (April 29). If these two days are compensated on the following Sunday, workers will have to work continuously, which is not good for their health. If the factory keeps the same schedule as before, that is, only two days, April 30 and May 1, workers will be disappointed. After reaching an agreement with the union, the company decided to create conditions for those who want to take time off to use their leave.

"Right now, the factory is worried about workers taking too many days off," Ms. Ngan said. The company is trying to convince and explain the situation of the factory needing to complete orders so that employees can work together. If workers take too many days off, the company will add overtime. Another concern is that many people taking a long break will be sluggish and take a long time to get back to work, similar to the Tet holiday.

According to Ms. Ngan, the extended holiday but the decision to come too close to the date will more or less affect production. "Adding a day to September 2 without being able to finalize the date has caused headaches for businesses every time they make annual plans," said the female department head. At the end of the year, manufacturing plants in Vietnam will make production plans, along with vacation time for the next year, and send them to the parent company. The group will send the schedule to customers so that partners can plan to come to work and visit the factory. They need time to apply for visas, estimate budgets, etc.

"If the factory changes its plans too close to the date or if customers come to Vietnam during the holidays, it will not be convenient for work," Ms. Ngan said. Therefore, the representative of the investor from the US suggested that the holiday schedule should be agreed upon early so that businesses and employees can be proactive.

Mr. Pham Xuan Hong, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Textile, Embroidery and Knitting Association, said that although the holiday schedule only encourages businesses to implement it, it also creates certain confusion. "April also has an additional day off for the death anniversary of the ancestors, which means production time is already short, so when adding a day off, it must be calculated," Mr. Hong said.

According to Mr. Hong, export factories have set their delivery times and overtime plans will be more difficult if they give a full 5-day break. Therefore, the main solution is still to organize production as usual, encouraging workers to cooperate, understand and continue working. In return, businesses will support additional costs for working on holidays or an additional 200,000 VND per working day to reassure workers.

The leader of the Ho Chi Minh City Textile, Embroidery and Knitting Association said that the worrying thing is that workers still want to take time off according to the schedule. In this case, companies should arrange leave and overtime to ensure progress. To avoid urgent situations like the current one, management agencies should have a plan for holidays from the beginning of the year.

The five-day holiday also caused confusion for tourism businesses despite the benefits. Mr. Nguyen Minh Man, Head of TST Tourist's Communications and Marketing Department, said that the decision to take a break when there was only half a month left until the holiday would reduce business opportunities for businesses due to the difficulty in arranging and building many services to best serve customers.

"If the number of days off is decided early, the business opportunities of the enterprise will be better, now it is too rushed and there are not many days to close customers", Mr. Man said. From the business reality, the representative of TST Tourist recommends having a holiday plan from the beginning of the year to help people and manufacturing enterprises proactively arrange holidays for employees. Travel, transportation and tourist attractions enterprises also prepare more carefully for services, ensure service quality, and control well the prices for customers.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ha Tat Thang, Director of the Department of Labor Safety, Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the agency that drafted the holiday period to get opinions from ministries, branches and the Prime Minister, said that the number of days off stipulated in the law should be implemented naturally. For occasions where it is possible to swap for more consecutive days off, this agency proactively proposed so that people have time to take care of personal matters.

"In particular, the swap to have a long holiday must depend on the economic and social situation at each time," Mr. Thang said. For example, this year, the April 30 and May 1 holidays are extended with the goal of stimulating tourism, developing the economy, and creating conditions for people across the country to go out and relax. If the holiday time is unified from the beginning, it can only be implemented according to the law, without the need to propose or consult. The swap mainly applies to the state sector, and businesses are only encouraged to implement it.

Economist Le Duy Binh, CEO of Economica Vietnam, said that any change in policy would impact and even disrupt people and businesses. In theory, the holiday only applies to the state sector, but in reality, large enterprises with many employees will always have to consider, comply, and arrange for their employees to take the same holiday. While the holiday is decided too close to the date, it is difficult for businesses to arrange production.

Experts give an example: if a family has a husband who is a civil servant and has a day off, but a wife who works in a business and has to go to work, it will be difficult to arrange a long vacation. Therefore, the goal of helping people rest will not be achieved. In the business sector, if for production reasons the company owner cannot arrange a 5-day vacation but the employees and the union want to take a day off, it will lead to tension. "This is unnecessary," said Dr. Binh.

According to Mr. Binh, the group of businesses that seem to benefit from the extension of this holiday are the trade, travel and transportation sectors. With such a short notice, whether these units can prepare in time to increase revenue and achieve economic development goals also needs to be evaluated.

"Policies must be foreseen in advance. Therefore, holidays must be planned from the beginning of the year. If there are any changes, the impact must be assessed," said Dr. Binh. According to experts, this year the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs uses the excuse of stimulating tourism, developing the economy, and creating conditions for people across the country to travel and relax. Thus, after the holiday, the agency proposed to evaluate the effectiveness and goals achieved through specific indicators to consider whether to continue swapping into the following holidays or not.

"Flexible management is necessary, but it affects millions of workers and hundreds of thousands of businesses, so we must be careful," said Dr. Binh. According to legal experts, specific holidays are regulated, but they change every year, making it difficult for businesses to predict. Therefore, we need to consider carefully when exchanging or extending holidays.