Mass layoffs should be minimized to protect workers’ interests: lawmakers

The Vietnamese economy is forecast to continue facing difficulties, so the government should ask businesses to limit production expansion and avoid mass layoffs, said legislators on Wednesday.

"The government needs to guide enterprises to allow employees to work in rotation and limit sudden layoffs that negatively affect workers' lives," said Dang Xuan Phuong, deputy head of the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education, Adolescents and Children at the ongoing session of the legislature.

Authorities must develop a system of warnings for industries with excess woorkers to avoid the risk of recession in the long term, he said, adding that social security must be ensured and resources should be used to meet daily needs, cultural and spiritual purposes as well as the educational needs of workers, officials, civil servants and public employees, especially young people.

Tran Thi Thanh Lam, a member of the legislative body’s Committee for Social Affairs, said that current policies for employees do not include solutions to ensure jobs and incomes, or limit layoffs, particularly at this difficult time.

State management agencies should put themselves in the shoes of workers whose social and health insurance premiums are not being paid by their employers and those who have lost their jobs in order to formulate strong sanctions and effective response tools, she said.

"We need to resolve unpaid insurance premiums for businesses that are in the process of dissolution, bankruptcies, and company owners who have fled," Lam said.

Echoing Lam, delegate Dinh Thi Ngoc Dung from the northern province of Hai Duong said that due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people have lost their jobs and are unable to cover their own needs and those of their dependents. This can lead to mental problems and even social consequences such as violence, school dropouts, and misconduct.

"If welfare is not guaranteed or fails to compensate for reduced income, and unemployment benefits are not enough to pay for essential needs, how will workers survive?" Dung asked, expressing concerns that it the situation lingers, strikes may occur.

Delegate To Ai Vang from the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang stated that the economic slowdown has resulted in increasing unemployment and inflation. Given that the government had foreseen the consequences and made macroscopic decisions, she said she was worried that unemployment and its impacts on the economy and society are posing a series of complex problems.

She proposed the cabinet direct ministries and sectors to complete statistical data on the current unemployment situation to form suitable solutions.

Mass layoffs started in mid-2022 when a series of domestic enterprises lost orders due to falling consumer demand in major markets such as the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Job cuts mainly occurred in labor-intensive industries such as textiles and garments, footwear, wood processing, seafood, electronic component manufacturing, and mechanics.

For example, PouYuen Vietnam, a Taiwanese footwear maker and the largest employer in Ho Chi Minh City by workforce, plans to cut 5,744 employees in June and July, raising the total number of workers laid off since the beginning of the year to July to over 8,000. Most of them are unskilled, female, or those aged over 40. The company has attributed the move to shrinking production and lack of orders.

In the first quarter of 2023, more than 149,000 employees across the country lost their jobs due to reduced orders, a quarter-to-quarter increase of nearly 13%. Most workers came from foreign-invested enterprises based in localities with a large number of industrial and export processing zones such as Dong Nai and Binh Duong in the south and Bac Ninh and Bac Giang in the north.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs predicts that the wave of mass layoffs may last until the end of 2023 if inflation and the economic situation do not improve.