Living wages, workers will have more choices

Have more time to take care of family

Bac Giang BGG Garment Corporation Joint Stock Company, Phi Mo branch (Lang Giang district, Bac Giang province) currently has 400 workers.

Ms. Ngo Thi Diem, leader of Team 1, said that she currently works 9 hours/day, including 1 hour of overtime. At 4:30 p.m., Ms. Diem finishes her official working hours; if she works overtime, she continues to stay at the factory for 1-2 hours.

Without much overtime, Ms. Diem has more time to take care of her family with 3 school-age children, but the total income of the female team leader is still from 17-21 million VND/month. The reason for this income level is because the salary is calculated based on the product, at the same time, she has many bonuses, such as: 5S (screening, arranging, cleaning, caring, ready), productivity classification.

“What I am most satisfied with at the company is that even though I don't work much overtime, the income is still good so I have more time to rest and take care of my family,” Ms. Diem shared.

Ms. Pham Thi Lua, Chairwoman of the Trade Union of Bac Giang BGG Garment Corporation, Phi Mo branch, said that the company's working hours start at 7:30 a.m.; workers have a lunch break at 11:30 a.m.; workers return to work at 12:30 p.m.; and official working hours end at 4:30 p.m. According to Ms. Lua, every time the minimum wage increases, the trade union advises the development of a new salary scale. The most recent time, after the regional minimum wage increased from July 1, 2024, based on the advice of the trade union, the company decided to increase the salary for one worker from 236,000 VND to 835,000 VND/month. The chairwoman of the trade union said that from the trade union's perspective, she always wants businesses to reduce overtime hours, but still ensure income and ensure the lives of workers.

Workers want to reduce working hours

Ms. Nguyen Thuy Linh - a worker at Quang Chau Industrial Park (Viet Yen town, Bac Giang province) said that workers hope to have less overtime work but still ensure income, because according to her, that way workers can take care of their lives and still have time to take care of their families, rest, and recover their health.

According to the provisions of the Labor Code 2019, employers must ensure that the normal working hours of employees do not exceed 8 hours per day, and do not exceed 48 hours per week for normal working hours. In case of weekly work, normal working hours do not exceed 10 hours/day and do not exceed 48 hours/week.

The proposal to reduce working hours has been mentioned many times before by organizations and experts, including during the process of drafting the 2019 Labor Code. This is also one of the recommendations sent by workers to the 13th Congress of the Vietnam Trade Union in December 2023.

Regarding overtime, employers are allowed to employ employees to work overtime when fully meeting the following requirements: Must have the employee's consent; ensure that the employee's overtime hours do not exceed 50% of the normal working hours in 1 day; in case of applying the regulation on normal working hours per week, the total number of normal working hours and overtime hours do not exceed 12 hours in 1 day; do not exceed 40 hours in 1 month; ensure that the employee's overtime hours do not exceed 200 hours in 1 year, except for some cases as prescribed by law.