The director of the Bình Dương Department of Industry and Trade, Nguyễn Thanh Toàn, speaks at an online meeting between the province administration and businesses organised by the Bình Dương Furniture Association on October 7. — Photo tuoitre.vn

HCM CITY — Many businesses in Bình Dương want the province administration to scrap the registration for having workers stay in secure workplace or work-home bubbles since approval takes too long.

They told an online meeting with the province government on last week organised by the Bình Dương Furniture Association that there are too few government workers compared to the number of companies, and so permission to remain open takes a lot of time or does not come at all.

Businesses that want to keep operations going must register under the so-called ‘three on-site’ (work, eat and rest at the workplace) or ‘one route, two destinations’ model (workers only travel between home and factory on a fixed route).

The Bình Dương industrial parks management oversees around 3,900 companies but has only about 50 employees to verify if the former comply with COVID-19-prevention regulations, the businesses told the meeting.

Nguyễn Thanh Toàn, director of the province Department of Industry and Trade, said the government has taken note of businesses’ demand and is likely to scrap the registration requirement. Authorities would instead inspect them to ensure they comply fully with COVID-19-prevention regulations, he added.

Some of the business executives at the meeting also wanted the province to bring back workers who had left for their hometowns in other provinces during the lockdown by seeking more vaccines from the Government for them.

Migrant workers returned to their hometowns in huge numbers after October 1 when the lockdown was lifted, causing a severe shortage in the province. — VNS