Thousands of labourers in Hai Duong Province face three challenges: no medical facilities, no entertainment area and no nursery.
Preparing a meal
Hai Duong Province has about 60,000 people working in 10 industrial parks. Due to low salary, workers can only rent small apartments with little furniture. Pham Dinh Hoa, a worker from Tinh Loi Textile Company said, "We have to do lots of extra shifts. If female labourers can't wean their babies by the time they should return to work, they have to resign."
A survey conducted by Hai Duong Province's labour union showed that more than 50% of labourers frequently had to pull extra shifts. Only 2% lived in apartment buildings provided by the company. 95% wished to have more time for entertainment and sport activities. However, the companies' budget for those activities is limited. The Ministry of Finance gave directives on the issue but implementation is slow.
Many of the workers said that, since they could not afford a TV, they do not know what to do after work for entertainment. The male labourers frequent street restaurants while the female take walks to markets. With a tight budget, labourers often choose to rent apartment in cheap areas where security is weak.
According to one labourer, they should have at least one police station for each industrial park where thousands of people gather together. This concern was raised after many ATM robberies that have occurred.
The Department of Construction in Hai Duong proposed various measures to improve labourers' accommodation such as giving loans with preferential interest rates to build apartment blocks inside industrial parks. The authorities of Hai Duong People's Committee have just approved of the plan to build culture houses and entertainment areas for labourers.
