Hundreds of disadvantaged workers have received gifts and free bus tickets to return home for the Lunar New Year (Tết) holiday. — Photo tuyencongnhan.vn

HÀ NỘI — Hundreds of disadvantaged workers have received gifts and free bus tickets to return home for the Lunar New Year (Tết) holiday.

Some 800 tickets and Tết presents were given to workers in the northern province of Hưng Yên yesterday at a year-end gathering organised by the province’s labour federation.

Six new houses were also given to low-income local workers by the federation, and an existing one got repaired.

Up to 300 bus tickets and 1,000 presents were given to disadvantaged workers in the northern province of Hà Nam at a similar gathering, which saw the participation of Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tiến Dũng and Vice President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour Trần Văn Thuật.

“Thirty buses will be arranged to take the workers home for the holiday as many of them live as far as 150km from the province,” said Trịnh Văn Bừng, president of the province's labour federation.

Hà Nam Province has some 65,000 industrial workers – some 20,000 of them hail from other provinces and cities and some 8,000 are living in disadvantaged circumstances, he said.

Also yesterday, Politburo member and standing member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat Trần Quốc Vượng presented 100 presents to low-income workers at the electronics company JNTC Vina in the northern province of Phú Thọ.

The Party official asked the VGCL and Phú Thọ’s labour federation to improve the performance of grassroots trade unions in protecting the legitimate interests and rights of workers.

Some 100 low-income labourers in the northern province of Hà Giang yesterday also received presents from Politburo member and head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Information and Education Võ Văn Thưởng.

He expressed his hope that the mountainous province will continue its efforts to reduce poverty and improve the living standards of ethnic minority locals.

The labour federation of the northern province of Bắc Ninh and local enterprises collaborated to give some 7,300 bus tickets and 1,700 presents to disadvantaged workers.

Tết presents were also given to 55 victims of Agent Orange in the southern province of Sóc Trăng yesterday by the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin. — VNS