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Vietnam's labor ministry has asked that businesses across the country inform employees how much their bonuses for the Lunar New Year Tet holiday will be.
In a recent statement, the ministry urged city and provincial labor departments to make sure businesses under their jurisdiction, both Vietnamese and foreign, to work with labor unions on plans for bonus payouts. The plans must be submitted to the ministry by the end of December, according to the government's news website.
In Vietnam, bonus pay is a matter of agreement between employers and their workers. Businesses are highly encouraged by the government to reward employees based on business performance.
Tet is the biggest holiday in Vietnam. The upcoming Year of the Rooster will begin on January 28.
The government has approved a seven-day break for the holiday from January 26 to February 1.
During this period, government offices and state-owned companies will close, as well as schools and almost all businesses in the country.
Nguyen Ba Hoan, a ministry’s spokesperson, told Tuoi Tre newspaper that Vietnamese laws do not actually require businesses to report on their Tet bonus plans. The ministry's reminder is just to encourage employers to do what they are expected to, he said.
There have been wildcat strikes in previous years where workers protested little or low bonus payments.
Vietnamese workers received an average of VND5.53 million ($245) for the Tet holiday early this year, up 15.7 percent from the previous year, according to a ministry’s survey of around 2.4 million workers at 13,178 companies nationwide.
Payouts ranged from a meager VND40,000 ($1.77) to a staggering VND624 million ($27,700). Both these lowest and highest levels were reported at foreign-invested companies.
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