Following the exposure of huge salary amounts paid to the managers at four state-owned public welfare companies in Ho Chi Minh City, the city leader demands those who abused the laborers’ wage fund be punished.

>> Vietnam Prime Minister’s monthly salary is $805: Gov’t office>> Abusing wage fund, directors pocket $123,000 as yearly salary

“Frankly speaking, the biggest offense committed by them is abusing the wage fund of laborers to make themselves rich”, HCMC People’s Committee chairman Le Hoang Quan commented on the huge salaries paid to top officials at the four city-based companies.

“This wrongdoing must be strictly punished. It is not acceptable that they simply return to the wage fund these amounts that they have received illegitimately,” the city leader said at a meeting held on Thursday to discuss the socio-economic performance and budget activities in August and plans for next month.

The four companies involved are HCMC Urban Drainage Company Limited, Saigon Traffic Works One-Member Co Ltd, HCMC Public Lighting Company Limited, and Green Tree and Park Co Ltd. The highest salary recorded at one of these companies was up to VND2.6 billion (US$123,600) per year, 41 times higher than that of a seasonal worker at that company.

As announced by the Government Office at a press conference on Wednesday, the salary of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is just roughly VND17 million a month ($805).

Quan said he has asked concerned agencies, including the Interior Department, to consider responsibilities of the management boards of these companies in calculating and paying too high salaries.

These companies belong to the public welfare sector, but their boards of directors breached the labor regulations and abused wage funds to pay too high salaries for themselves in 2012.

The total amount of money that has been spent wrongly and has to be recovered from the three companies amounts to VND6.265 billion ($297,800). Considering such abuse as a moral degradation and as a sign of individualism, Quan said, “While the city authorities and people are trying to overcome economic difficulties, is it reasonable and acceptable for them to do so?”

He also revealed that his salary is equivalent to that of a minister, about VND11 million per month, nearly 20 times lower than the above-mentioned highest salary.

Le Manh Ha, one of Quan’s deputies, requested on August 26 that all three companies recover the money that has been spent wrongly and report their actions to the HCMC People’s Committee before September 15.

Lawbreaking

Huynh Thanh Khiet, deputy director of the HCMC Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, said that all these public welfare companies have violated the Labor Code regarding the signing of labor contracts with their employees.

Specifically, they signed contracts with a term of under three months with people who were qualified as regular workers, and signed contracts with definite terms with people who were qualified for indefinite contracts. These companies used the worker’s wage fund as a source to pay not only salary but also bonus to managers. Besides, they have been found applying wrong salary unit values although the city government has issued concrete regulations on such issues.

Fully state-owned enterprises now have two wage funds: one for workers and the other for managers of these enterprises, Le Ngoc Thuy Trang, head of the Business Financial Sub-department under the HCMC Finance Department, told Tuoi Tre.

She said the department is re-examining all expenses that have been spent by using the two wage funds at these companies to find anything unreasonable or unlawful.   

Under a new directive of the city People’s Committee, the department will inspect the wage funds at all 53 enterprises that are owned by the city in the near future, Trang added.

Four more violators

Le Xuan Thanh, deputy head of the Wage Department under the Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, had a meeting with the HCMC Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs on Thursday about the wage-related wrongdoings at the three companies.

After getting enough necessary information, the ministry will report the case to the Government for consideration and resolution.

At the meeting, Tran Trung Dung, director of the HCMC Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, reported that besides the three companies, four others have also committed similar violations.

However, the violations at these newly-detected violators, including HCMC Bridge and Ferry Co Ltd, are at lower levels.