Eleven workers at a firm in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province have resigned in protest at sub-standard food in their company canteen.
Hoang (in front) was assigned as a cleaner following the initial dispute
Forced to quit job
The conflict developed when Le Thanh Hoang, a worker at the Sang Phan Vietnam Limited Company at Tan Thanh District’s Phy My 2 Industrial Park, complained to the company’s catering manager about the sub-standard food.
Hoang told DTiNews that on February 2, 2012, he and his colleagues had found maggots in food served at the canteen. He informed the canteen manager hoping the situation would improve.
However, the manager said the food was still ok and told him to take another dish instead.
In order to protest over the manager’s comments, Hoang and some of his colleagues decided to boycott the meal and returned to work.
During the afternoon shift that day, Hoang was asked to meet his section head and was told “The meals are free, workers can opt not to eat them if they don’t like them, but the company won’t change anything.”
Worker Tran Thi Dung said that she objected to the manager’s behaviour. Other workers, including Nguyen Van Vinh, Nguyen Quang Son and Nguyen Thi Xuan, shared her view.
Hoang was accused of inciting other workers to boycott the meals and was asked to go home, but he objected and continued to go to work the following day.
His group leader then asked him to take on the responsibility of a cleaning worker.
Following the ill-treatment of Hoang, 11 workers in his group resigned.
Breaking a promise
After being informed about the conflict, the union of the provincial industrial parks and local police met with leader of the company to work out a solution.
According to report made on February 7, the company’s representatives agreed to make an official apology to their entire workforce, along with improving hygienic conditions at their canteen in order to ensure food hygiene.
However, the situation did not improve and by February 9 the workers had yet to receive any apology from the company’s leaders.
Nguyen Song Hong, an official from the Tan Thanh industrial parks’ trade union, said the company’s behaviour had been disgraceful.
Following the original agreement, the 11 workers attempted to return to the firm, but were locked out on February 8.
Worker Nguyen Quang Son said, “Initially, I was too annoyed by the group leader’s behaviour and decided to resign. When I heard that the company would take us back, I wanted to return to work after Tet as I thought the company’s leaders would have changed their mind and made some improvements, but it’s just the same.”
Since the onset of the dispute, the company decided to sack Hoang, compensating him with just one-month’s payment.
