Potentially high Tet bonuses reflect economic recovery

LookAtVietnam – People are starting to dare to hope for higher Tet bonuses as the economic recovery gathers pace.

The Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) has sent a document to local departments, requesting reports on year-end and Tet bonus plans. Details on bonuses must be made public no later than December 20.

 

Unlike previous year,  many businesses are now predicting satisfactory bonus for 2010 Tet. They say the global economic crisis has either had little effect or the upswing has been enough to promote optimism.

 

Tong Thi Minh, director of the Wage Department under MOLISA, said no official information about businesses’ Tet bonus levels has been released, but she expects the 2010 Tet bonuses to be higher than the previous year.

 

Minh said the majority of businesses have recovered from the economic downturn. That explains why many businesses have been trying to recruit high numbers of workers in the last months of the year.

 

She says businesses try to offer high bonus in order to retain workers, especially when they need more workers to fulfill growing orders .

 

A director of a seafood company said that the national economy has recovered sooner than previously expected. His company has received many orders since May 2009. “Therefore,” he said, “I cannot see any reason to refuse to give high bonuses to my staff”.

 

According to Dang Quang Dieu from the Vietnam Labour Union, the record 2009 Tet bonus level was set by a law firm in HCM City which gave 330 million dong to one of its staff. However, Dieu said, the ‘breakthrough’ in Tet bonus is expected to come from the real estate sector. This was really a lucrative sector in 2009.

 

 

Finance and Banking is also believed to have high bonus levels thanks to favorable business in 2009. Banking staff are expecting average bonuses of no less than 10 million dong per person

 

High bonus levels are also expected from ‘hot’ business fields, such as telecom services, tourism and consultancy. An official from MOLISA said the bonus levels in these fields may not be overly high, but will be satisfactory and higher than the previous year.

 

Footwear, garment and seafood are not listed as lucrative business fields, but expect to see considerable improvement in Tet bonus in comparison with the previous year, when they had to tighten belts and only gave the model bonus of 100,000-200,000 dong per worker.

 

Some garment companies said that the one-month salary bonus is within their reach this year.

 

According to Dieu, with the decrease of the VND value, one month salary bonus would be relatively low; however, it would be still ‘acceptable’ for workers of some production fields.

 

VietNamNet/TBKTVN