50 firms in Covid hotspot Dong Nai want to pull the plug on stay-at-work

By Thi Ha August 13, 2021 | 07:01 pm PT

Workers at Taekwang Vina Industrial JSC in Dong Nai Province have their body tempearute screened, June 2021. Photo by VnExpress/An Phuong.

Fifty companies in Dong Nai Province have said they no longer want their workers living in the workplace, a requirement thought up by authorities to combat Covid-19.

They have a total of 25,400 workers, of whom more than 8,000 work, eat and sleep in their factories.

The Dong Nai Industrial Zones Authority said 1,179 enterprises with a total workforce of over 341,000 in the province have registered to implement the stay-at-work mode, under which more than 138,700 workers are to work, eat and sleep in their firms.

But employers have been complaining about the high costs, impact on workers’ psyche and potential spread of infection in factories.

The Saigon Hi-tech Park Business Association in neighboring HCMC wants two companies in the park to be allowed to trial a new stay-at-work mode for their workers in August.

They will have their employees going back home after work, only eating at the workplace and no longer living there.

With the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak proving unpredictable, companies in Dong Nai and some other localities have let their employees remain at work instead of traveling back and forth from their homes each day, which is more likely to increase the risk of infection.

Dong Nai have recorded over 12,000 Covid-19 cases since late April.