Labour experts consider reducing working hours

Workers process seafood for export at the Gò Đàng Joint-stock Company in the Mỹ Tho Industrial Zone in the southern province of Tiền Giang. — VNA/VNS Photo Minh Trí

HÀ NỘI — The Việt Nam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) has proposed to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) that the working week falls below 48 hours.

MoLISA believes that reducing working hours would bring positive socioeconomic impacts, so they have asked for the idea to be fully researched on a scientific and practical basis to ensure feasibility, when adding the policy in the amended Labour Code.

According to experts, to reduce working hours, there is no other way than to also improve productivity, increase wages and ensure workers’ living standards.

But, in Việt Nam, manufacturing enterprises are mainly small and medium ones, operating based on cheap labour and not investing in modern machinery and technology, so productivity remains low.

Looking at countries that have achieved outstanding productivity levels such as Singapore, Japan and South Korea, to maintain productivity growth, they have undergone strong structural changes such as investing in technology and increasing production efficiency and product quality.

Ensure stable income

Associate professor Đinh Trọng Thịnh, senior lecturer at the Academy of Finance, said that reducing working hours to 44 hours, on the way to 40 hours, was in line with the general trend of different countries in the region and the world.

It creates favourable conditions for workers to improve their health, regenerate labour power as well as improve professional skills and have time to participate in other social activities.

Therefore, the proposal is worth considering and putting into practice.

Under Thịnh’s analysis, increasing labour productivity has been implemented by businesses for many years, but it cannot be achieved after a short time.

Thịnh said that if reducing working hours, businesses needed to have certain solutions to stabilise or increase labour productivity first.

The most fundamental solution is improving workers’ qualifications and capabilities so that reduced working hours still ensure wages as well as employees’ contributions to the businesses and society.

“If enterprises still use old, outdated technology, productivity and quality cannot increase. If the process does not apply digitalisation, it will not ensure the requirements of improving production. Obviously, businesses and workers must have unity and coordination in the issue, then we can reduce working hours but still improve productivity and wages. Workers’ living standard is stable with good welfare,” said Thịnh.

Bùi Sỹ Lợi, former Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly’s Social Affairs Committee, stated that the goal is increasing labour power, which was also a requirement of the labour market when foreign businesses are flooding into Việt Nam to hire workers, especially in the context that Việt Nam and the world have gone through the COVID-19 pandemic.

If an immediate reduction in working hours is applied, from 48 hours to 44 hours, it will have a strong impact on foreign businesses that want to invest in Việt Nam, because Việt Nam’s human resources are part of an aging population.

“A reduction of four working hours means reducing human resources,” said Lợi.

For that reason, if reducing working hours in the current low labour productivity conditions, it must be calculated and considered very carefully.

The socio-economic impacts should be re-evaluated to ensure workers still have stable incomes. In reality today, many workers are in difficult circumstances and they want to work overtime to increase their salary.

“On the other hand, some other workers want to reduce working time to combine with other jobs, so there must be a plan to evaluate the impact. In the long term, I affirm that we must reduce work time. But, in the current conditions, we should consider carefully and choose an appropriate time to gradually reduce the working time”, he said.

Lợi said that reducing working hours is a desire, a legitimate aspiration and a trend of the times.

At present, workers’ income is still too low, so reducing working hours will cause difficulties for the workers themselves, not for domestic and foreign enterprises.

The most important method is encouraging businesses to invest more in technology and reallocating personnel. If any business meets those requirements, it can pilot reducing working hours while still increasing labour productivity and workers’ income.

Lợi said the workers themselves must improve their skills, because good skills will promote labour productivity.

At the same time, enterprises should build entertainment and cultural areas to ameliorate workers’ spiritual life, to improve their motivation for them to be enthusiastic in production. — VNS