Unnoticed suspension of operation ends with promised supports

Hundreds of workers at a South Korean invested company in Ho Chi Minh City have been left bewildered after a shock suspension.

Employees not allowed to enter the company after a sudden suspension of operation on May 12

Hundreds of workers at Yesum Vina Company went to work on May 12 to find out that they were not allowed to enter and there was no explanation from the company.

The employees were told by local authorities that the employers can unilaterally terminate the contracts when they have done their best but still have to scale down businesses due to natural disasters, fire or other force majeure events in accordance with the laws and Yesum Vina is one of such cases.

However, Yesum Vina earlier announced that they would suspend operation and make nearly 600 employees redundant starting from May 30, not May 11 due to business scale down as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company sent notices 30 days prior to employees with fixed-term contracts and 45 days prior to those with indefinite-term labour contracts. The company said they would consider giving support to employees under the conditions that the employees must concentrate on working hard to finish the orders on time.

The company's labour union said they had worked with the company managers and the authorities. After the meeting, Yesum Vina said that workers only had to work until May 11 instead of May 30. The workers will be paid for working days from May 2 to 11 and enjoy unemployment benefits for non-working days from May 12 to 30.

The company will transfer the wages and supports to the workers on June 3 and return their social insurances on June 20.