No more lay-offs in 2024, Adidas supplier says

By Hong Chieu December 2, 2023 | 09:31 pm PT

Workers at Taiwanese footmaker Pouyuen leave work in HCMC in 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Nhu Quynh

Taiwanese footwear maker Pouyuen, a contractor for major brands like Adidas, Nike and Reebook, has no plan to lay off workers in 2024, according to the company's union.

At a union discussion on Friday, Cu Phat Nghiep, chairman of the Pouyuen union, said the firm needs to hire more than 1,000 workers before Lunar New Year.

"We are negotiating with the business regarding the year-end bonus," he said, adding that workers will get at least two months worth of salaries for this year's Tet bonuses, at VND22 million ($905).

From April to August, Pouyuen, the largest employer in HCMC, paid around VND1.2 trillion to over 9,500 workers following three rounds of lay-offs, Nghiep said. Just over 40% of the laid off workers were aged over 40, he added.

"The lay-offs at the time happened entirely due to the lack of orders, not because we wanted to push away older workers," Nghiep said.

Compensation for the workers was worth 0.8 of their monthly salaries for every year they worked at the company. The average monthly salary is calculated based on their salaries of the last six months.

Over the last six months, Pouyuen has laid off 9,500 workers. The first round occurred in April, with 2,300 workers being let go. The second round took place from May to July, with over 5,700 workers laid off. The last round occurred in August, with 1,200 workers laid off.

In total, since 2020, there have been four rounds of lay-off at the company, with over 12,200 workers being let go.

Following the lay-offs, the firm has around 40,000 workers left.