The shortage has been caused by flows of migrant workers leaving for their hometowns after the province loosened Covid-19 prevention and control restrictions on October 1.
Many local companies have tried to pay half of the basic salary for their workers, but due to the prolonged social distancing, many employees faced difficulties. So they decided to return to their hometowns.
Nguyen Kim Phi, trade union chairman at SV Probe Vietnam Company, said that the company was running with just 30 percent of its workforce as it was applying the ‘three-on-the-spot’ mechanism. With the model, the company has to ensure meals and accommodation for the staff to stay at work.
Flows of migrant workers leaving Binh Duong Province for their hometowns
According to Phi, although the province eased social distancing measures from October 1, only half of the company had registered to return to work, while many others had returned to their hometowns. This was a challenge for his company which specialises in high-tech electronic products for exports as it takes a worker at least six months to be good at the job.
Between July and September, the revenues of the company dropped by 90 percent.
A representative from the provincial Job Centre of Employee Services said that since October 1, around 200-300 people had come to the centre to seek job opportunities. The centre will co-operate with localities to boost recruitment activities.
Since late September, the centre has introduced jobs for nearly 1,000 people. Currently, the centre is recruiting 3,000 workers for three local companies.
Experts said that companies need to have policies to attract workers to return to work after such as offering them subsidies to help them stabilise their lives after the pandemic. This would be a good solution to help ease their labour shortage.
