With Tết (Lunar New Year) only a few days away, demand for house cleaning services is skyrocketing in HCM City, driving fees up by as much as a third.

Companies, industrial zones and hospitals nationwide have been getting into the Tết (Lunar New Year) spirit and providing free transport to allow workers and patients travel home to spend the holiday with their families.

It was two o’clock on a Friday afternoon when 13-year-old Lê Văn Tiến stepped into a tiny classroom behind the Pediatrics Department at HCM City Hospital of Oncology.

Each gift worth VNĐ 500,000 would be given in person to the employees, while those who are absent would have the money sent via bank transfer, said Nguyễn Thị Vân Hà, chair of the northern province’s labour union.

Tết is a special time of year for everyone in Viet Nam, but it means a bit more for some families this year.

Holiday spirit seems to be in short supply at the Ministry of Transport (MoT), as the body has rejected a proposal to waive road tolls for the first three days of the Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday.

Policies relating to smuggled tobacco, bank cards, child care and teachers’ probationary periods are set to take effect this month.

A Taiwanese footwear company in the Mekong Delta province of Trà Vinh has announced plans to fire more than 10,000 workers just days ahead of the Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday, the provincial Labour Union reported.

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has asked the Ministry of Public Security to investigate and strictly handle the organisations and individuals who illegally traffic Vietnamese people abroad via tourism routes, reported online newspaper Vietnamnet.vn.