Businesses facing serious labor shortage

Pandemic forcing workers away from factories

A representative of San Ha Co., Ltd - a unit specializing in the production and trading of poultry products, said that the company has a factory in Long An. Most of the factory's labor source comes from other provinces to Long An. During the period of social distancing under Directive 16, nearly 50% of workers with fear of infection refuse to work at the factory.

When San Ha resumed production at the beginning of October, these workers were still afraid. They want to return to their hometown to be with their relatives, and at the same time, if given the opportunity, they would like to work near their home, causing the company to suffer a labor shortage. In the long run, when operation ramps up with increasing output, the labor shortage will certainly be more severe.

In addition, the skilled labor force (manager, technical, professional, etc.) of San Ha reside mostly in Ho Chi Minh City. Currently, this force still faces obstacles going to work at the factory because they still have to take the SARS CoV-2 antigen test procedure.

On October 1ts, 2021, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City issued a document to neighboring provinces facilitating conditions for workers to travel. However, many localities still apply the test procedure combined with Covid passports for workers passing through checkpoints.

"During the social distancing under Directive 16, San Ha faced many difficulties because of medical expenses incurred, while the company and many other food businesses still had to maintain operations with almost no profit, even prolonged losses. Therefore, medical costs along with testing requirements when passing through checkpoints greatly affected the efficiency of companies' operations", said the representative from San Ha.

Faced with such situation, San Ha proposed to remove difficulties and obstacles for workers moving between provinces and cities monitored using only Covid passports without testing (because the Ministry of Health issued Document 8228/BYT-MT dated September 30th, 2021 regulating periodical testing for workers in production and business establishments) and support businesses to organize nearly 100% vaccine coverage for the workforce. labor volume.

San Ha also proposed the health sector to control and stabilize the market and price of test kits, thereby, helps businesses reduce medical costs during the recovery period, which is difficult to continuously fight against the pandemic while maintaining production and business.

Wood industry surveys labor resources

Mr. Nguyen Chanh Phuong, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts and Woodworking Association, said: “Recently, we conducted a survey on the state of the wood processing industry in provinces surrounding Ho Chi Minh City such as Long An, Binh Duong, Dong Nai…

Regarding labor issues, factories in Long An seem to be the most stable, because it is located right in the Southwest region and wood factories mainly use workers from the southwestern provinces. Long An has done an excellent job of vaccinating people in general and workers in particular (information from the People's Committee of Long An province shows that, as of October 6th, over 99% of people over the age of 18 in Long An had received the 1st dose of vaccine and nearly 41% received the 2nd dose). This has helped wood businesses in Long An maintain their labor.

Thanks to its large geographical area, abundant local labor force, and additional labor from neighboring provinces such as Lam Dong, Binh Thuan, etc.,  so labor in wood factories is not a concern.

As for Binh Duong, there is always a shortage of labor for all industries even before the pandemic, so the fact that many workers return to the Central, North, and Southwest regions will certainly affect many industries in this province.

However, the wood industry requires skilled labor, with high stability in work, and does not depend as much on unskilled labor as some other industries. In addition, export wood processing businesses, especially larger ones, in recent years have focused on and promoted social security policies for workers. Therefore, many wood factories in Binh Duong may be affected by workers returning to their homeland, but not as heavily as some other industries.

It is worth noting that in the past, many businesses in the field of wood and forest product processing have transitioned to factories, closely following the area of ​​raw materials and suitable labor resources. This is clearly seen in the fact that many factories specializing in knitting products have moved to the southwestern provinces, with abundant raw materials and take advantage of the local labor force.

Support for workers must be timely

Mr. Ngo Xuan Chinh, Director of Nam Viet Fertilizer Production Co., Ltd., said that the fertilizer industry is a specific industry, and its workers require skills. When the social distancing was prolonged, some workers want to return home and the risk of labor shortage is great. The company also makes great efforts during the social distancing to retain employees, such as paying the minimum wage, supporting meals and accommodation at the company, but the pandemic still has an impact on the mindset and as such, many people still want to return home.

According to Mr. Chinh, the Government's Resolution 116 on policies to support workers and employers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic (with about 38 trillion VND from the Unemployment Insurance Fund) is very timely and practical. However, the support must be given quickly to aid workers in difficult times, and at the same time contribute to retaining the labor force

Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Huong, CEO of Viet Nature Import-Export Co., Ltd (producing and trading freeze-dried vegetable powders), said that during the recent pandemic, the company was severely affected by Covid-19, business declined, logistics problems with transportation to the plant, personnel layoff, lack of materials and production materials because suppliers closed, damaged machinery with no way to repair…

“When Ho Chi Minh City reopens, the first joy is to be "free" psychologically. However, the immediate difficulty is labor shortage. Because recruiting new people runs risk of spreading the virus from new workers.

Additionally, raw materials and inputs prices all increased. Many distributors have changed after the pandemic and the company has to exploit new markets," Huong said.

In order to continue production and business in the near future with overseas and Tet holidays orders, Ms. Huong said, she will slowly integrate and divide work among current employees to ensure the safety of her entire business system, ensuring strict implementation of the 5K for all workers as well as customers.