Thousands of workers at S&H Vina Thach Thanh Company went on strike on September 7.
Head of the Policy and Law Department under Thanh Hoa Provincial Labour Federation, Le Van Giang, led a delegation to S&H Vina Thach Thanh Company on September 7 to find out the demands of the strikers.
Officials from Thanh Hoa Provincial Labour Federation meet with workers at the company on September 7.
According to initial reports, the incident occurred during the afternoon break time on September 6 when the management tried to stop workers at Line 1 from laying cloth on the floor to sleep.
The workers were so angry at the attitude of the board which they described as heartless that they stopped working. The protest then spread to Line 2 and Line 3 when thousands of workers stopped working that afternoon, a report from the investigation team said.
According to some workers, the relatively innocuous dispute was the last straw that broke the camel's back. The company had failed to abide by their own labour contracts and there are also many unreasonable and ridiculous regulations and policies that are unfair to staff.
"The company's regulations say that workers can have one day off a month, but they don't give us any days off," a worker told officials of the provincial Labour Federations at a meeting on Thursday morning. "They haven't raised salaries every six months as stipulated in our contracts, either."
The workers also talked about ridiculous regulations including informing the company three days ahead if workers want to have a day off for the funeral of their family members.
"We contributed to the trade union fund every month but never receive gifts at Tet holiday or other special occasions," they added. "Our meals are very poorly prepared and aren’t nutritious."
The workers said they want the company to raise salaries to suit the current standards of living and ensure some basic rights including maternity leave and child subsidies as well as leave for special occasions.
The workers haven't returned to work while the trade union team worked with the company's leaders on September 9.
The South Korean-invested S&H Vina Thach Thanh was put into operation in September 2015 and employs 6,000 workers.