Some 1,235 enterprises in Vietnam are facing difficulties in production, affecting 472,000 workers, and more than 41,500 people have had their labor contracts terminated since the middle of the year, according to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor.

These figures are drawn from a statistic conducted by the confederation in 44 provinces and cities across the country during the half-year period.

Of the 41,558 people who lost their jobs, nearly 30,300 were female workers aged 35 or older, and more than 9,400 were pregnant and raising children under one year old.

The job cuts occurred mainly in textile, garment, footwear, and wood processing enterprises as they lacked foreign orders, faced increasing input costs and declining consumer demand from major markets such as the U.S., the EU, and Japan, according to the confederation.

The union forecasts that those difficulties will last until the middle of 2023, leading to more layoffs and reductions in working hours, and seriously affecting workers’ income.

The agency also does not rule out scenarios where business owners run away, owe salaries, social insurance and other benefits, or purge workers over 35 years old from their companies to recruit younger people at lower pay.

By the end of November, there were 144 collective work stoppages in industrial parks, export processing zones, and economic zones, an increase of 53 times over the same period in 2021. 

The main reason is that wages and benefits were cut while workers had lost income during the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Phan Van Anh, vice chairman of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, asked trade unions to proactively urge enterprises to pay unpaid wages and reward employees at the end of the year.

Trade unions must also negotiate with employers to arrange working time to minimize job loss, especially for female workers aged 35 years old and in difficult situations.

On October 26, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor announced a plan to give support totaling VND500 billion (US$20.2 million) to workers in celebration of the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, which will begin in the latter half of January.

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