One "College Meal" per week
"Every week, employees get to eat one Union meal" - Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, a worker at Truong Giang Seafood Joint Stock Company (Sa Dec Industrial Park, Dong Thap province) happily shared.
According to Ms. Phung Thi Ly Ngoc - Chairman of the Company's Trade Union - after organizing the "Trade Union Meal" in response to the direction of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VND 52,000/meal), seeing the positive changes from the employees, she and the Executive Committee (EC) proposed and received the company's leaders' agreement to maintain the "Trade Union Meal" every Saturday for over 2,000 union members and employees to enjoy. In the immediate future, the "Trade Union Meal" will be maintained until the end of 2024. In 2025, depending on the company's business situation, the Trade Union will have a new proposal according to the motto "Measure your coat according to your cloth".
Previously, from the proposal of the Trade Union, the company's leaders agreed to support the price of breakfast for employees, such as: Support 7,500 VND/meal worth 17,000 VND and 3,000 VND/drink worth 5,000 VND. This method not only helps employees have breakfast with many options at a cheap price (13,000 VND/person), but also helps employees recharge enough energy during special times.
Due to the nature of the tra fish processing industry, a number of workers have to work from 4am, so they need to recharge their batteries to start a new working day. From practical observations, it is seen that many workers have difficulty buying food because the outside services are small in scale. Meanwhile, the workers' meal time is very short. Not to mention the quality and especially the food safety and hygiene issues of these services, so the Trade Union boldly proposed...
Through direct observation of shift meals, as the Chairman of the Company's Trade Union, Ms. Ngoc proposed that the leadership increase the meal price to 22,500 VND/meal and prepare 2 main dishes so that employees have more choices to suit their taste. In early 2024, she continued to propose and was approved by the company's leadership to change plastic food trays to stainless steel to ensure the health of employees.
Worry about "ketchup, fish sauce and salt"
Not only that, at each labor conference, the company's trade union also makes 3-5 recommendations that are more beneficial to the workers than the law. "The good thing here is that the recommendations know how to harmonize reason and responsibility and interests, so they are easily accepted by the company's leaders," commented Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nhan, Chairman of the Trade Union of Industrial Parks and Economic Zones in Dong Thap.
Thanks to that, over the past 10 years, the company's Trade Union has brought many rare benefits to employees. In addition to maintaining a regular health check-up regime, rewarding children of employees who overcome difficulties and study well with a total amount of up to approximately 1 billion VND/year, there is also support for "ketchup, fish sauce and salt".
Based on the specific nature of the job, the majority of employees are female, many of whom have young children, the company's Trade Union proposed and on April 22, 2022, a Breast Milk Collection and Storage Room was established at a cost of nearly 100 million VND, along with regulations on arranging time for female employees to take turns to express milk in a reasonable manner.
Recently, from the fact that workers in the pangasius processing industry for export have had their income reduced due to a decrease in orders, the Chairman of the Trade Union has proposed that the company invest 300 million VND to establish a "Non-profit Sales Supermarket" to support workers and volunteered to take responsibility for assigning members of the Executive Committee to directly record needs and deliver goods to workers.
By skillfully leveraging the organization's advantages to enhance "all-inclusive" care, the company's Trade Union not only provides employees with practical support, but also contributes to affirming the irreplaceable role of the Vietnam Trade Union in the integration period.
