The new management board of footwear manufacturer KaiYang Vietnam Limited Company addresses thousands of workers in a meeting on Monday morning. — VNA/VNS Photo An Đăng

HẢI PHÒNG — The new management board of the Chinese Taiwan-invested footwear manufacturer KaiYang Vietnam Limited Company spoke to thousands of employees on Monday morning, saying the firm would restart its work on Tuesday after its doors were shut last week following the abrupt departure of the company's director last week.

The board told the workers the company, which is located at 196 Hoàng Quốc Việt Street in Kiến An District, the northern port city of Hải Phòng, would be absorbed by H&S Co Ltd.

In a meeting with workers on Monday morning, Jenny Koo, chairwoman of H&S Co Ltd’s board of directors, said she and her colleagues would try their best to pay half of the unpaid July wages within this week and pay the remainder next week, Vietnam News Agency reported.

Trần Minh Thi, a worker who is in her eighth month of pregnancy, said she had worked for the KaiYang Vietnam Co Ltd for 12 years

Thi hoped the work situation would be stable from here on out and the company would provide her with the necessary insurance when she gives birth.

The company's director-general Huang Shang Chee and 17 experts and technicians left Việt Nam on August 12 without an explanation, leaving the workers' wages unpaid. For the next few days, workers continued to show up at the factory hoping to receive information on their salaries and insurance payments, and a definite answer on whether the company would shut down so they could start looking for new jobs.

On August 15, chairman of the Hải Phòng People’s Committee Nguyễn Văn Tùng had a phone call with the leaders of the company in Taiwan. Tùng expressed his hope the company would continue its operations in Việt Nam.

Chairwoman of the company’s trade union Chu Thị Kim Oanh also tried to contact the main company in Taiwan and encouraged workers to keep calm and wait for a solution.

According to the city’s General Confederation of Labour, KaiYang Vietnam Limited Company has 2,357 workers, including 85 pregnant women. The company is backed by investors from Taiwan and manufactures leather shoes for export. — VNS