Ms. Pham Thi Ly (38 years old) - a garment worker in Bac Ninh province - said that since July 10, she and many other workers have only worked until 5:30 p.m. Before this time, female workers had to work until 7:30 p.m., working 1-2 more days on Sundays.
"All orders were shipped before July 15, currently there are only a few long orders, so we are quite assured to work. The company still recruits people but only recruits skilled people, not in large numbers as before" - Ms. Ly said.
Ms. Ly said that although the salary is not calculated by time, her income is still affected to some extent. According to the female worker, the current orders do not have good unit prices, working until 5:30 p.m. even if the output is accelerated, it is not as good as working until 7:30 p.m.
Previously, when working overtime regularly, workers were supported by businesses with many other packages. In addition to increased output, each overtime hour is supported with 20,000 VND, in the evening, a dinner is supported worth 20,000 VND, and on Sunday, a 500,000 VND is supported.
Ms. Ly estimates that 20 days without overtime can reduce her income by 2 million VND, to about more than 8 million VND/month. When thinking about September, her children starting to enter the new school year, Ms. Ly became even more worried.
"I work a little late, but with more money, I won't worry. With reduced income, the whole family has to limit spending, try to save at least 5 million VND to buy clothes, books and pay for the first months of the year for the children" - Ms. Ly said.
Having a child entering university, Mr. Nguyen Van Tien (Ninh Binh) and his wife have never been as worried as this year. Partly because of high tuition fees, partly because his income in July also decreased by nearly 20% compared to the previous month.
"In the near future, my wife and I will have to prepare 30 million VND to complete school registration procedures and rent rooms, buy personal items for our children to study in Hanoi. Hopefully the company will soon have a comeback so that my wife and I can work overtime and feel secure in supporting our children's education" - Mr. Tien said.
Currently, both Mr. Tien and his wife work for the same company. The income of Mr. Tien and his wife in June was 20 million VND, in July the company had few jobs and returned home early, estimated to decrease to about 16 million VND.
Mr. Tien said that with 30 million VND to prepare for paying for their child's tuition, both husband and wife had to withdraw from their annual savings books. Every month, Mr. Tien and his wife also save and set aside 5 million VND to send to their children for living and studying.
In addition to the eldest child, Mr. Tien and his wife also have to set aside an additional 1.5 million VND/month to take care of their youngest child in grade 9. The monthly living expenses of the 3 people in the countryside are about 4 million VND.
With a current income of about 16 million VND/month, after supporting their children and living expenses, Mr. Tien and his wife only have 5 million VND left. Plans for children and family plans for the future also had to take longer than expected.
"Hopefully the company will soon have more orders again so that we can work overtime and feel secure in taking care of our children's education through university. If I have overtime, after only 2 months, my wife and I will spend enough money to buy the older brother a laptop to serve his studies, said Mr. Tien.
