Workers lose their jobs, billion-dollar boarding house owner cries because of unsold rooms

Half of the rooms are unoccupied.

The land of Mrs. Hoac Thi Nguyet (in Quang Chau commune, Bac Giang ) is quite close to factories and manufacturing plants in the industrial park located in the area. Understanding the need for accommodation of workers far from home, Mrs. Nguyet and her husband built a boarding house with 10 rooms a decade ago.

As the Quang Chau industrial park grew and attracted a large number of workers, Ms. Nguyet's family decided to "do big business", borrowing money from the bank to expand the scale 15 times. The 150 rooms of the 5-storey building were invested with a construction cost of up to 5 billion VND.

Ms. Nguyet said: "Before the Covid-19 pandemic, there were very few vacant rooms. As soon as a worker moved out, another worker came to rent and take over immediately."

Ms. Nguyet is worried because the dormitory has no workers to rent (photo: Que Chi).

At that time, after deducting expenses and bank interest payments, her family could save a few tens of millions of dong each month. The rental business was stable when the Covid-19 outbreak caused a lot of disruption.

"We are still heavily affected. Workers only rent half of the rooms we have. There are still many empty rooms in the boarding house," said Ms. Nguyet.

Since the beginning of 2023, many businesses have been affected by a decrease in orders, stagnant production, and lack of work for workers. Many workers have had to move to areas with more work to be able to make ends meet in a foreign land.

In recent days, Ms. Nguyet has been constantly checking the rooms before the workers leave. Many people cannot stay and have to clean up, move to other places to find work or return to their hometowns.

Ms. Nguyet's family invested billions of dong in building a motel (photo: Que Chi).

Her family often listens to recruitment needs of businesses. A large electronic components manufacturing company is recruiting many positions, Mrs. Nguyet is secretly happy. However, the area where her boarding house is located is quite far away so not many people come to rent it.

In addition to hanging up the “for rent” sign, she also posted information about the house on many groups to attract more workers. That was the way for her to have more money to rent the house, cover her living expenses as well as “bear” the huge interest and debt to the bank.

Tens of thousands of workers have had their income reduced.

According to the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Bac Giang province, by June, 87 enterprises in the province (accounting for 1.2% of the number of operating enterprises) had to cut or reduce their workforce, affecting the jobs and income of over 26,500 workers.

Of these, over 17,000 workers had to quit their jobs or have their contracts terminated; over 2,200 workers had to stop working or take unpaid leave; 862 workers had their labor contracts suspended and over 6,200 workers had their working hours reduced.

The number of workers losing jobs and reducing jobs is mainly in the textile, manufacturing and assembly of electronic components.

According to the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Bac Giang, the reason for the above situation is that some enterprises operating in the field of processing and assembling electronic components and textiles are lacking or have had their orders cut, so they have to reduce their workforce or let workers take turns taking leave.

Textile and garment industry is the industry with the most serious decline in labor recruitment demand (Photo: Pham Nguyen).

Currently, the whole province has over 285,300 workers working in enterprises. Recently, besides enterprises having to reduce the scale of production and business, in the province there are also many enterprises going into operation and expanding production.

In the first 6 months of the year, businesses have recruited over 25,000 workers. It is expected that in the last 6 months of the year, the locality will need to recruit about 60,000 workers.

Recently, to support businesses and workers whose jobs are affected, the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Bac Giang province has regularly monitored, promptly informed, and reported on the situation of businesses that have had their orders cut, their workforce cut, their working hours cut, and their operations temporarily suspended.

From there, proactively coordinate with competent authorities to propose and implement solutions to support production and business for enterprises; conduct inspections and supervision of enterprises' compliance with the law, labor use and payment of benefits according to the law for employees.

At the same time, the industry directed the Provincial Employment Service Center and 20 enterprises providing employment services in the area to regularly coordinate with businesses to support job search for workers and support businesses in recruiting enough workers according to production development needs.

Source link: https://dantri.com.vn/lao-dong-viec-lam/cong-nhan-mat-viec-chu-khu-tro-tien-ty-khoc-vi-e-phong-20230719122602889.htm