VietNamNet
Bridge – Businesses feel uneasy after
the National Assembly agreed to increase the maternity leave period from four
months to six months, because this may cause problems to the labor force and
affect the productivity.
The
six month maternity leave policy would take valid from May 1, 2013. However,
enterprises have to think of the measures to deal with the labor force shortage
right now.
Dr
Dang Hoang Lan, Deputy General Director of the Ho Guom Garment Company said
that when women workers leave for six months, this would have big impacts on
the production line. The problem proves to be especially serious for garment
companies, which hire many women workers.
Lan
has affirmed that Ho Guom would not break the laws for the benefits of
laborers. “The six month leave would cause big difficulties for the company.
However, we understand that laborers would be able to work well if their
children can be grown up well,” she said.
Lan
said that the board of directors has gathered some meetings to discuss the
recruitment plan. Ho Guom would encourage women workers to return to work
sooner, before the maternity leave period finishes. If too many workers leave
during the high production season, the company would have to recruit new
workers.
Tran
Tien Thinh, Business Director of Tinh Van Consultancy and Business
Administration Company, has also complained that the new maternity leave policy
would put big difficulties for enterprises. In fact, the current shorter
4-month maternity leave period has caused big headaches to business owners
already.
Therefore,
Thinh said that enterprises need to prepare well for the changes in the labor
force and get ready to adapt to the new circumstances many months before the
validity time of the new maternity leave policy. It’s necessary for businesses
to change their human resource strategies, considering setting up personnel
reserve plans.
Thinh
went on to say that flexible policies should be applied to minimize the
negative impacts on the businesses’ operation. If businesses can lay down
reasonable preferences, they would be able to encourage workers to return to
work soon. For example, they could work half a day and enjoy longer maternity
leave. In this case, they would be able not only to receive fixed monthly
salaries, but also the additional earnings from other sources.
Besides,
businesses should also consider the plans to recruit new workers to replace the
ones on maternity leave, or to rotate workers among the divisions in the same
companies in order to minimize the negative impacts.
On
June 18, the National Assembly ratified the amended Labor Code, which says that
from May 1, 2013, women workers would have six months for the maternity leave
instead of four months currently. About 20 decrees to guide the implementation
of the law would be promulgated later by the government.
Businesses,
while admitting the big benefits of the policy for laborers, have complained
that the new policy would cause big problems to enterprises.
Mark
Gillin, Deputy Chair of AmCham Vietnam, also warned at the Vietnam Business
Forum held in Hanoi on May 29, that the new provisions in the Labor Code (the
extra working hours must not be higher than 200 hours a year, women workers
have six month maternity leave), may lead to the productivity decreases, which
would lessen the competitiveness of Vietnamese enterprises.
This
also means that Vietnam would find it more difficult to attract foreign direct
investment (FDI), especially when businesses lay off thousands of workers in
the economic crisis.
Also
according to him, the annual average productivity growth rate in the years
between 2007 and 2009 was zero percent.
Analysts
have predicted that in order to deal with the new law, businesses would request
women workers to register the maternity leave plans. Meanwhile, women workers
would face a big risk that they would not have the opportunity to return to the
works before, because the workers have been undertaken by others already.
Source:
VnExpress
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