The Labor Ministry has asked the Prime Minister to cut down wages of workers in state-owned enterprises that incur losses in 2009 by 20 percent.

According to MoLISA, following the global economic recession, the profit and productivity of some state-owned economic corporations and groups have reduced in 2009.

According to the Finance Ministry, for all state-owned enterprises that have profit and labor productivity drop offs in 2009, the salaries for their employees must be cut down by 30 percent compared to the levels of 2008.

MoLISA said that the cut of 30 percent is too high because the income of employees at these firms have already dropped in comparison to 2008 and this policy will hit workers hard.

The ministry, therefore, proposed the government to allow state-owned companies which have profit and labour productivity in 2009 that are equivalent to or higher than 2008 to increase salaries.

Those that have reduced profit but productivity and sales equal to 2008 can maintain the same pay for workers.

Companies that have profit, labour productivity but sales falling will see workers’ pay reduced by 0.5 percent for each 1 percent of reduction.

Vietnam currently has over 1700 wholly state-owned companies, employing around 1.9 million people.

VietNamNet/Dan Tri