Take your children to the supermarket for a place to play during the day
Ms. Truong Thi Hanh - a worker at Matsuo Industries Vietnam (Thang Long Industrial Park) - and her husband went from Thanh Hoa to Hanoi to work. With an income of about 15 million VND/month, they rent a small room, just enough to have two beds, all activities take place on the floor.
The three children are still young, the youngest is only 8 months old, so the couple had to ask their grandmother to come out to look after them. On holidays, she often takes her children to the supermarket to play because the boarding house is cramped and lacking space. Like many other workers, she hopes to have a school near the boarding house so that her children can feel secure, along with safe playgrounds for children.
According to a survey in 2024 by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor's Women's Union in 5 localities with many industrial parks and export processing zones, including: Hai Phong, Hanoi, Thai Nguyen, Ho Chi Minh City, Long An, the number of workers surveyed with an income of less than 6 million VND/person/month accounts for 15.1%; from 6-8 million VND/person/month accounts for 38.5%; from 8-10 million VND/person/month accounts for 26.9%; the rate of workers with an income of over 10 million VND/person/month accounts for only 9.5%. The employee was asked if his savings account for only 3.2%, the rest had to spend frugally, his savings accounted for 46.3% and he could not cover living expenses, accounting for 15.9%.
The survey results show that the living conditions of workers in industrial parks and export processing zones still have many difficulties affecting the care and raising of workers' children, such as only 26% of workers surveyed said that their houses are airy and have a space for children to play, only 17.7% of workers answered the question of living areas and playgrounds for children. Due to difficult living conditions, many industrial park workers have to send their children back to their hometowns, cannot live with them, and do not have the conditions to be close and directly take care of children's nutritional meals. In addition, the situation of employees often working overtime accounts for 18%; occasionally having to work overtime when there are orders accounts for 48.5% and the average overtime per week is 5-12 hours. Due to having to work regularly, 52.9% of surveyed employees said they have little time to be close to their children. The average time employees spend caring for and raising their children ranges from 1 to 4 hours/day, depending on the working time. Workers who send their children back to their hometowns are only allowed to take care of their children remotely via phone and audio-visible means.
From the above reality, the biggest wish of employees is to have enough income to live on (46.6%), to buy or rent social housing (23.5%), and to have children living near their parents (21.3%).
Striving for 100% of provincial and municipal labor federations to propagate about kindergarten policies
Recently, the Presidium of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor has decided to issue a Project "Supporting workers in industrial parks and export processing zones in child care and education in the period of 2025 - 2028". The project is built on the basis of the needs of employees.
One of the goals of the project is to strive for 100% of the Labor Federations of provinces and cities where there are industrial parks and export processing zones to implement propaganda activities on kindergarten policies for children of workers in accordance with the provisions of law by 2028. 70% or more of employees working in industrial parks and export processing zones who are pregnant and raising children under 16 years old are allowed to participate in training courses/pedagogical training courses on parenting knowledge and skills in person or online. Each provincial and municipal Labor Federation with industrial parks and export processing zones participates with local authorities, departments, branches and unions to have specific policies to support workers in child care and education.
Strive for each provincial and municipal Labor Federation to support at least 01 group of independent and private children in areas with industrial parks and export processing zones with equipment, equipment, tools, toys and conditions to ensure the quality of care and raising children of workers.
The project aims to promote the role of the Trade Union, mobilize support from the government and businesses in caring for workers' children, contributing to improving the quality of life and human resources.
