Nearly 2,000 labourers from the South Korean textile company KL Texwell Vina in Trảng Bom District’s Bàu Xéo Industrial Zone have returned to work on February 26 following the company’s announcement but found out that the company still closed.– Photo infonet.vn

ĐỒNG NAI – The Labour Federation of southern Đồng Nai Province said they contacted local enterprises to find new jobs for nearly 2,000 labourers who hadn’t received salaries and year-end bonus as their foreign employers had fled the country.

The move was made after nearly 2,000 labourers from the South Korean textile company KL Texwell Vina in Trảng Bom District’s Bàu Xéo Industrial Zone returned to work on February 26 following the company’s announcement but found out that the company still closed.

Previously, on February 8, workers gathered at the company to demand they receive salaries worth some VNĐ13.7 billion (US$616,000) for January before the Tết holiday. They were also owed over VNĐ17.5 billion ($750,000) in insurance payments to the provincial Social Insurance Department. However, they were informed that the company’s general director and 11 members of the management board had left for South Korea.

On Monday, the provincial Labour Federation’s vice chairman Đoàn Văn Đây said that as many as ten enterprises were willing to hire these labourers with regional salaries and no age limit.

The provincial People’s Committee has set up a working team to protect the benefits of these labourers. The team tried to contact leaders of the South Korean textile company KL Texwell Vina for solutions.

Results would be given to labourers by March 6, Đây said.

The company’s machinery and other valued assets had been protected, he added.

Nguyễn Thị Thủy, a worker from the company told Tiền Phong (Vanguards) newspaper that she returned for work on February 26 but was informed that the company had not resumed operation.

Thủy said she felt something was wrong when the company divided workers’ December salary into three separate payments. She said she was 49 years old, and was afraid that she could hardly find a new job at that age.

Nguyễn Thị Thảo, another worker, said that she was quite worried about the next days as she had to pay for rent, her children’s school fees and other daily expenditures.

Many workers said that they wanted to switch jobs, but they were required to get back their social insurance books from the KL Texwell Vina in order to start new jobs. This was impossible until the functional agencies handled the case completely.

Also on the same day, the team continued to give financial support for those who hadn’t received any payment before Tết. The financial support included 50 per cent of workers’ January salary that KL Texwell Vina owed, another VNĐ600,000 (US$26.4) as support from local labour agencies and VNĐ169,000 ($7.5) from the company’s union.

South Korean KL Texwell Vina registered for an investment licence in garment and textiles in December 2015 and employs more than 1,900 workers. – VNS