Low salary due to poor negotiating skills: expert
VietNamNet Bridge – Are low labor costs really an advantage of Vietnam’s labor market or are Vietnamese workers are paid meagerly?
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Workers’ salary also depends on their negotiating skills: experts |
According to Mai Duc Chinh, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Confederation of Labor, strikes boomed this year. There were 541 strikes in 2007, compared with 650 strikes in the January-August period of 2008. Up to 80% of the cases happened at Taiwanese and Korean-invested companies.
Chinh said textile-garment workers earn the lowest salary, and then comes laborers who work in timber processing and footwear companies. Average salary for workers in these industries in HCM City is around VND 1.1-1.2 million ($65-71) per month. In some neighboring provinces, like Long An, Tay Ninh, and Binh Duong, it is merely VND 900,000-VND 1 million per month ($530-65).
According to Chinh, many companies, particularly foreign-invested ones, apply very clever wage policies. They always pay their workers in the “principle”: the State-ruled minimum salary plus VND 50,000-100,000 ($3-6).
“In my opinion, workers’ salary is only legal, but not rational,” Chinh said.
The total income of workers at foreign-invested firms is often low, though their minimum salary is higher than that at local firms. Working in the same areas, but income of workers at domestic firms can reach VND 2 million ($117.5) compared to VND 1.1-1.2 million ($65-71) at foreign-invested companies.
Pham Minh Huan, Chief of the Salary-Wage Agency under the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, said wage is influenced by the market mechanism, or the negotiation between employers and employees.
“It is wrong to say that wage is low due to low State-set minimum salary. The minimum salary is the floor salary and the State does not hinder employers from paying high salaries to their workers. Workers’ salary is largely dependent on their negotiation with employers. Low salary is due to poor negotiating skills, but many people blame this on low minimum salary,” Huan said.
Dao Van Thu, from the Vietnam Confederation of Labor, said many companies avoided negotiation with workers and avoid disclosing production and business information during the negotiation process with laborers and allege many reasons to not improve working conditions.
Do Minh
Update from: http://english.vietnamnet.vn//social/2008/12/816845/
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