Adequate salary and bonus are the driving force to increase labor productivity.

Speaking at the Forum "Improving national labor productivity in 2024" organized by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) on May 26, Dr. Pham Thu Lan, Institute of Workers and Trade Unions, VGCL said: satisfactory salary, bonus and welfare regimes are important driving forces to promote labor productivity improvement.

Dr. Pham Thu Lan said that all workers are concerned about their salary, especially those with low incomes. Reality has confirmed the close and proportional relationship between salary, bonus and benefits with work motivation, satisfaction and dedication to work.

"Even though employees want to stick with the company, they cannot stay with the company forever when the salary is low. This explains why the job-hopping rate is high, 8-12%/month in industries with a large workforce," said Dr. Pham Thu Lan.

Accordingly, in economic relations, job-hopping to find a job that suits one's skills, qualifications and maximizes one's abilities is normal, but job-hopping purely to find a higher salary for a similar job is an unnecessary waste.

Dr. Pham Thu Lan analyzed that a business with 1,000 workers but 100 workers continuously coming in and out every month, this business will have to spend a lot of time, effort, money and human resources on recruitment advertising, organizing interviews, procedures, records, documents and training employees... While these costs can be completely saved to invest in increasing productivity.

According to Dr. Pham Thu Lan, the Government has made great efforts to improve wages, living standards, employment and income through many comprehensive policies and measures in nearly 40 years of renovation and achieved many proud results. However, to increase productivity in the coming period, it requires a transformation of the model, a transformation of the economy along with a transformation of employment, workforce and skills. To successfully implement this synchronous transformation, wage, bonus and welfare policies play an extremely important role.

To contribute to increasing productivity from the labor factor, Pham Thu Lan believes that it is necessary to establish a reasonable minimum wage. A reasonable minimum wage not only ensures to cover the basic necessary expenses for workers and their families but also requires a reserve for force majeure and savings for the future.

"The Trade Union hopes that the Government will direct the National Wage Council to research and establish a satisfactory minimum wage in the coming time, and advise the Government so that wages are truly a driving force for productivity growth," Dr. Pham Thu Lan proposed.

Along with that is increasing social insurance coverage; promoting gender equality in income between men and women for the same job of equal value; accelerating the progress of building social housing with infrastructure of schools, hospitals and other basic facilities so that low-income workers can achieve their dream of owning their own home; attracting responsible foreign investors, choosing advanced, quality investors with high compliance with the law to contribute to improving national labor productivity...

Sharing this view, Chairman of the trade union of Changshin Vietnam Company, Dang Tuan Tu, said that only when workers are promptly cared for and encouraged both materially and spiritually will they feel secure in their work, enthusiastically compete in labor production, contributing to increasing labor productivity.

Along with that, the rights of employees are well protected through good supervision, inspection, and urging strict implementation of legal policies, labor regulations, collective labor agreements, labor contracts, wages, benefits, working conditions, and labor safety and hygiene.

Invest more in organizing skilled worker competitions

Chairman of the Trade Union of Hanoi Industrial and Export Processing Zones Nguyen Dinh Thang shared his experience in organizing skill competitions, skilled worker competitions, theory review, and skill training for workers to contribute to improving labor productivity.

Accordingly, the emulation movement "Reviewing theory, practicing skills, competing for good workers" among the capital's labor force has affirmed that emulation is an extremely important driving force to arouse the spirit of creative labor, sense of responsibility, daring to think, daring to do; striving to excellently complete assigned tasks - especially increasing labor productivity; reducing defective and damaged goods, improving designs, helping businesses overcome difficulties, stabilize and develop production and business. This is also an opportunity for the trade union to affirm its creativity and innovation in content and methods of operation, receiving the support of employers and the response of workers.

In order for the emulation movement “Reviewing theory, practicing skills, competing for skilled workers” among workers to bring about practical results and have a wider impact, the Chairman of the Trade Union of Industrial and Export Processing Zones said that it is necessary to maintain and expand the Skilled Workers Competition in provinces and cities where there are many workers with the participation of the government and employers. At the same time, enterprises need to pay more attention to investing in time, facilities, and funds to organize Skilled Workers Competitions to improve labor productivity, product quality, and train high-quality human resources.