Province further supports workers to stabilize their lives

After nearly a month of returning to the "new normal" state, most enterprises in the province have resumed operations. The province has quickly resolved support packages in order to help employees step through "difficult days" and stabilize their lives. As a result, employees feel more secure to work.

Employees enjoying support policies

According to provincial Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (DoLISA), localities have so far spent nearly VND2.7trillion from 3 main support packages, namely the Resolution No.68 of the Government, the Resolution No.04 of provincial People's Council’s, the Decision No.12 of provincial People's Committee. Even though the time to pay 2 support packages of the province from the Resolution No.04 of provincial People's Council and the Decision No.12 of provincial People's Committee ended, but localities have still continued paying for cases of duplicate or missing documents registered in August. Provincial DoLISA is also promoting support policies for employees taking unpaid leave under the Government’s Resolution No.68, creating favorable conditions for them to overcome difficulties.

Provincial Labor Union is coordinating with the local all-level authorities and units to continue supporting and paying attention to stabilizing workers' lives

Nguyen Ngoc Hang, Deputy Director of provincial DoLISA said: “Although support groups under the Resolution No.68 were propagandized by the department earlier to quickly solve support policies for all workers who are facing difficulties, due to the epidemic, enterprises were not proactive to register dossiers because of having difficulties in movement during the the peak months of the pandemic. As of now, relevant dossiers have been transferred a lot by enterprises and the department is putting all its efforts to appraise and recheck in order to bring subsidies to employees as quickly as possible.

In recent days, more than two-thirds of employees participating in social insurance in the province have received money from a support package of VND30trillion from the balance of the Unemployment Insurance Fund with the subsidy level of between VND1.8million and VND3.3 million per person. This amount is not much but enough for employees to cover room rent, meals during the days when they return to the factory and wait for their salary. It is expected that the province has about 1.4 million workers to receive support from this policy package.

Tran Van Thanh, a worker of Vinh Nghia Footwear Company in Ben Cat town’s Hoa Loi ward said: "This is a policy package that has been resolved very quickly. After only half a month of implementation, most company employees have received the support. For employees at this time, a few of millions dong is very precious, helping them solving difficulties after many months of the prolonged pandemic. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thuy, a worker of Castec Vina Vietnam Company in Ben Cat town’s Thoi Hoa ward also shared the same opinion as Mrs. Thanh. She said that for workers who are not allowed to participate in the "3 on-site" production model, receiving the support of several millions of dong at this time is very meaningful.

Besides, all localities of the province have still maintained the hotline 1022 to supply food and necessities for workers with difficult circumstances and those being F0 cases. Nguyen Kim Loan, Chairwoman of provincial Labor Union said that officials of Trade Unions at all levels are further appraising dossiers and paying support for employees who are F0, F1 cases; taking care of families with extremely difficult circumstances; cooperating with donors and enterprises to support and care for children orphaned by the pandemic. Provincial Labor Union is rapidly deploying a support package of VND30billion for workers with difficult circumstances....

Supporting loans for employees, enterprises

In addition to quickly resolving support packages, localities are focusing on recovering production after the pandemic, inspecting and rechecking all enterprises in order to ensure a safe production environment. All the branches of the Vietnam Bank for Social policy (VBSP) in districts, towns and cities have also created conditions for enterprises to get loans for production and business recovery. Nguyen Thanh Hiep, Deputy Director of the VBSP’s Ben Cat branch said that if the bank had to promote preferential loan packages for enterprises during the peak period of the pandemic, now enterprises directly contact banks for loans.

“The procedures for loans to pay wages for employees during work suspensions and for the recovery of production are very simple. With the 0% interest rate and 12-month lending term, the loans will help enterprises solve immediate difficulties. Up to now, our bank has also solved nearly 100% of loan applications for poor and near-poor households, lending policies to recover small-scale production and business models on cultivation, animal husbandry and grocery trading…All these documents were quickly resolved by the bank," said Mr. Hiep.

At the VBSP’s Di An branch, preferential loan packages are widely propagandized to each ward, creating the best possible conditions for poor and near-poor households when they need capital. When the province has returned to the "new normal" state, the bank's leaders went to each household to visit and encourage when there was a need to borrow capital for production. Those are the models of growing clean vegetables, raising livestock or doing small business. Seeing the potential of these models, the bank decided to lend the highest possible level, creating the best conditions for people to stabilize their income. Dang Thi Anh Thu, Director of the VBSP’s Di An branch said: “Besides ensuring Covid-19 prevention and control, the bank is giving priority to providing loans for production recovery. Enterprises overcome difficulties which means that employees' lives get good care."

In order to help enterprises resume operations soon, departments and agencies in the province have set up plans linking with enterprises to recheck and take workers to return to Binh Duong to work. Many enterprises have also planned to take better care of their employees' lives with incentives such as increasing wages, allowances…while offering support policies to workers with difficult circumstances...

Localities have so far spent nearly VND2.7trillion of three support packages from the Resolution No.68 of the Government, the Resolution No.04 of provincial People's Council and the Decision No.12 of provincial People's Committee.

Reported by Quang Tam-Translated by Kim Tin