Vietnam

According to workers, they have not been paid their August salary despite continuing to bear heavy workloads.

The company owes VND500 million (US$30,000) in August salaries but blames late payments from customers for the delay in payment, local authorities said.

More than 1,400 workers at Valley View Vietnam, a Taiwanese-owned garment company based in the central city of Danang, have been on strike since Thursday, demanding a monthly petrol allowance of 100,000 dong (6 dollars) and an increase in their daily meal allowance.

The workers of Hwa Seung Vina in southern Dong Nai province stopped work Saturday, asking company leaders to raise their incomes by at least 300,000 dong (18 dollars), said Tuoi Tre daily newspaper.

The management of the company, which produces shoes for export, offered to raise workers' salary by 200,000 dong (12 dollars) but the compromise did not work, the paper said.

The strike, which took place in the Song Than II Industrial Zone in the southern province of Binh Duong, asked the company's management to raise basic salaries by 15 per cent, and provide workers with accommodation and transportation costs. It was reported that the workers' current salaries are too low to cope with the country’s high inflation.

The confederation’s Vice Chairman, Mai Duc Chinh, said that under the current regulations, only grassroots trade unions have the right to organise strikes, but this regulation is unrealistic because there is no mechanism to protect trade union leaders and most employers don’t positively cooperate with trade unions.

Over 1,000 workers walked out of a Panasonic factory in Hanoi over the weekend demanding higher pay. This came in the wake of a strike by 5,000 at a shoe factory in Hai Phong City last month.

Rising food and consumer goods prices have led to a wave of strikes across Vietnam. The strike at Long An follows a strike and lockout of 17,000 workers in the same province last month.

The strike began when workers walked out of the Ching Luh factory in the southern Long An province on April 1, demanding a wage increase of 22%. A return to work negotiated by trade union officials after two days saw the majority of workers return to the factory, although the terms agreed to by the union amount to an increase of only 10%.

Yazaki Haiphong Vietnam Co, a Japanese car-part manufacturer, is based in Nomura Industrial Park, where 2,000 workers from different companies were on strike earlier this month for similar grievances. Wages were increased in January, but pensions and bonuses were cut.

With the rapid rise of inflation, now at 9.5%, the cost of living in Vietnam has risen sharply, with prices being 10% higher than they were a year ago. The average monthly wage at the plant is $62.

"Given the fact that inflation is so high now, it is hard to say they are being too demanding," said Kieu Minh Sinh, an official with Dong Nai Provincial Trade Union.