Thousands of workers afflicted as work contracts terminated unilaterally

Workers gathered in front of Yupoong Company demanding satisfactory compensation. Photo: Viet Labor.

Viet Labor * Phương Thảo (Danlambao) Translated - November 11th morning, hundreds of workers continued to gather in front of Yupoong Vietnam Co. (Loteco Industrial Prak, Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai Province) to protest against the company’s unilateral termination of their work contracts.

The day before, November 10th, representatives of those whose work contracts were terminated unilaterally by Yupoong Co. had sent a petition to Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Welfare (Dong Nai Province), but until now they have received no reply.

According to many workers here, they are facing the risk of unemployment as the company refuses to sign work contracts in the days to come. What is more, several are pregnant or have young babies; others are the only family bread-winners having old parents to take care of... They don’t know how their families will live when their income is no longer unavailable.

Ms.Sam, aged 40, living in Bien Hoa City, resentfully says: “I’ve been working here for nearly 12 years. The year- end is round the corner… Out of the blue the company announced staff reduction due to fires. We strongly disagree with their decision.”

Most of the reduced are those who have been working years for the company; some have even worked for dozens of years here.

Ms.Phuong (living in Bien Hoa city), a worker in Factory 1 bitterly utters: “I have been working here for as long as ten years… Now that I’m over 40; where can I go ? Where else can I apply for a job? The company is asking me to sign in the form… claiming that one day, if the company operates again, they’ll call me back. Be that as it may, I can’t believe it.”

What is more, most worried are the pergnant female workers. They are due soon, but they don’t know what to do in case of being laid off. “I’ve been pregnant for seven months… The due date is coming. I’ve been looking toward to the the year- end bonus… With it, I’d feel more secure when giving birth. Now, suddenly, I’m dismissed. I really don’t know what to do,” Ms. Kim Chi bitterly resents.

Previously, at about 21:00 pm September 21st, the company’s Warehouse 1 had been completely burnt down in a fire which led to the suspension of production in Factory 2.

On the pretext of the fire, Yupoong Vietnam Co. announced the termination of contracts of 1,867 employees working in Factory 1 and Factory 2. Later, they decided to re-use about 400 workers. This announcement was then posted at the company’s gate on 7th November.

However, the fact that hundreds of workers at Factory 2 were forced to give up their jobs makes no sense as work here is still operational; the machines and equipment are running normally.

At present, the company is working with the police and the insurance company. Each employee will be compensated with 1.5 of their monthly salary. This decision is supposed to be announced within 45 days.

Until this moment, hundreds of workers still remain at the company’s gate to protest against the above action of the company. Besides, according to Viet Labor collaborators, there are scores of policemen and plain-clothes security agents around this location. This makes information collecting more difficult as these agents always try by all means available to prevent anyone from approaching the workers.

Viet Labor will update further developments in this case.

16/11/2015