HCMC firms seek to pilot commute-to-work model

Computer chip maker Intel Products and automatic data capture and process automation service provider Datalogic will have their employees going back home after work, only eating at the workplace and no longer staying there as mandated by the city to contain Covid-19.

At many companies in the south, workers eat and sleep on-site, but employers complain about the high costs, impact on workers’ psyche and potential spread of infection in factories.

The Saigon Hi-tech Park Business Association said hi-tech firms need highly qualified and senior employees work in person at factories, and many have already been vaccinated against Covid.

During the trial, an app will be installed on employees’ smartphones to allow their employers to monitor their movements.

The employees have to provide an assurance they would go only to their house and nowhere else during the 15-day trial period, their family members and roommates will be tested for the coronavirus, and they will work in a separate area in office.

Employers have to test them for Covid twice in the first five days and twice more in the next seven.

Even if an infection is detected, factories will be allowed to remain open if the rate is below 10 percent of the total number of employees.

The trial, if approved by city authorities, will involve some 300 employees.

With the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak proving unpredictable, companies in HCMC 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.

HCMC is the epicenter of the latest Covid-19 wave with more than 137,000 cases.