Individual tents mushroom in southern factories to house workers

Nearly 500 workers of the Truck & Bus Radial Tire Factory under the Southern Rubber Industry Joint Stock Company in Binh Duong’s Tan Uyen Town have slept in square meter tents in the factory over the past few days.

They have used vacant land in the factory to play volleyball, table tennis and badminton.

Hoang Vinh Phuc, deputy director of the factory, said the board of directors on June 22 decided to let all workers stay at the factory for 2-3 weeks. Following this, 480 laborers chose to live on the premises, 170 others agreed to work from home, or stop working and get minimum wages.

All male workers live in tents, while 24 female workers are housed in the factory’s dormitory for experts. Besides three meals and two snacks, each worker is given an allowance of VND150,000 ($6.51) a day.

Nguyen Kim Loan, chairwoman of the Binh Duong Labor Union, said that some factories in the southern province with a workforce of not more than 500 were making use of their workshops and warehouses, and erecting tents as temporary accommodations for workers.

As of Friday morning, Binh Duong has reported 497 Covid-19 infections, mainly in factories and boarding houses full of workers.

In HCMC, which has recorded over 4,304 infection cases in the ongoing fourth wave of Covid-19, some factories in the Saigon Hi-tech Park have begun to create makeshift accommodations on their premises.

Over the past few days, 400 workers of medical equipment maker Nipro Vietnam have stayed in the workshops. Some electronic goods producers in the park are preparing to erect tents and camps for some 6,500 workers if the pandemic situation worsens.

Le Bich Loan, deputy head of the hi-tech park’s management board, said some factories, which do not meet conditions for letting workers stay on the premises, will rent houses outside for them. Before entering the factories, workers have to undergo Covid-19 testing.

HCMC is home to 1.6 million workers, including over 320,000 in 17 industrial parks, export processing zones and the high-tech park. Binh Duong has 29 industrial parks and complexes with 1.2 million workers.