Vietnam News Network

While employees are eager for information about Tet bonuses, it is a headache for the leaders of businesses, especially privately-run enterprises.

Tet bonuses in the belt-tightening period

However, Bao Anh said that he will try to give the 13^th month salary to his staff.

At HCM City-based Minh Tri Software Company in Phu Nhuan district, Nguyen Thanh Binh, Deputy Business Director of the company, said that due to the big difficulties of the national economy, his company received few projects this year. The company has not received any orders for the last few months. Therefore, employees should not expect high Tet bonuses.

Binh said that the company has not made its final decision on Tet bonuses, but he said that the previous year’s two-month bonuses are not likely. If the situation is very difficult, the company will prioritize giving bonuses to staff first.

Binh related that he knows some companies that have to borrow money to give Tet bonuses to staff.

In fact, employees have anticipated that the Tet bonuses will be ‘modest’ this year because they can see with their own eyes the difficulties of the national economy, when the commodity prices skyrocket and incomes decrease due to order cuts.

Hoang Thi Oanh, a garment worker in Tan Binh district, said that she is working for a small company that has approximately 50 workers. Oanh said that the company did not have many jobs in 2008, and workers sometimes had to stay home from work. Therefore, Oanh knows that the Tet bonuses will not be high.

Nevertheless, Tet bonuses remain the most expected reward for many workers who live far from their home villages. Tet bonuses will give them money for railway tickets, gifts for parents and family members, and house decoration for Tet.

Phan Thi Loi, a worker in Thu Duc district in HCM City, who comes from Thai Binh province, related that with an income of VND 1.8 million a month, she can hardly put aside several hundred thousand VND a month. Loi has VND 5 million after one year of working; however, this sum of money proves to make nothing if compared with the sum of money she will have to spend to buy gifts for families and relatives when she returns home to celebrate Tet.

Loi said that she did not return home for Tet over the last three years because of the big difficulties she met when she arrived in HCM City. Therefore, she wants to get together with her family this Tet. However, she is not sure if she can do that if the Tet bonuses are not high enough to allow Loi to return home.