Poor wages prompt state officers to quit

Many branches, departments and districts in HCM City are seeing their officers leaving for the private sector.

At the HCM City Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, many officers have chosen to leave because incomes from the jobs are not enough to cover their basic needs, and the working environment is unfavorable.

An officer, 48, with a master’s degree, who asked to be anonymous, decided to resign from the post of deputy director of a social center under the department, and undertake a new job at a foreign invested enterprise.

He said it took him a lot of time and effort to obtain the post, but he has no other choice than to quit the job which has a low salary and doesn’t have promotion opportunities. 

According to the official, the workload was heavy, especially during the pandemic, while the income was too low. With a master’s degree and a salary coefficient of 4.65, he could earn VND10 million a month.

Meanwhile, the foreign invested enterprise where he has moved to, offers him a salary which is three times higher, or VND30 million a month. In addition, he also receives monthly and quarterly bonuses. He also sees great promotion opportunities there, which depend on workers’ capability, not on any other condition.

Another officer, who has a doctorate, said he once held the post of deputy head of a division at the HCM City Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, but has left to work for a real estate firm.

After returning to Vietnam from overseas study, he went to work for the department. After a period of work, he was appointed to the post of deputy head of a division and programmed to be promoted to the post of head of division. However, the promotion did not come as expected.

His work at the department was heavy as it related to personnel, wages and remuneration.

Finally, he decided to quit the job to work for a real estate firm with a starting wage five times higher than the salary he received for the previous job.

The HCM City Department of Information and Communications also had three officers resign, including a division head, who said the income was too low and he wanted to seek a new opportunity. 

Associate Prof Dr Vu Hai Quan, director of the HCM City National University, said the public sector has become more open than it was previously, but policies on attracting talents are still not attractive enough, especially in the fields of healthcare, education, and science and technology.

In the last five years of piloting a program on attracting talents, HCM City attracted 19 scientists, but 14 of them later left, and in the last three years, the agencies of the city could not recruit any specialists. 

The reasons behind this were low wages and uncompetitive working environments which cannot retain talented officers.

The latest report of the HCM City Department of Home Affairs showed that most departments, branches and localities have officers resigning. 

The Construction Department has the highest number of officers resigning (23), followed by the Planning and Investment Department (22), the Tourism Department (21) and the Industry and Trade Department (11).

At the district level, Thu Duc City tops the list of localities with the highest numbers of resigned officers (40), followed by district 6 (35), Tan Phu (33), district 11 (31) and Tan Binh (28).

Fewer staff and heavier workload 

At the latest working session between Thu Duc City and the Minister of Home Affairs, chair of Hiep Binh Chanh ward Nguyen Ngoc Tuan reported that more and more officers have quit because of  low salaries.

He said the number has been decreasing continuously. There were 62 cadres prior to 2019, but the figure is now just 34. Most recently, a deputy chair of the ward’s people’s committee has resigned. 

Local officers have to work until 8-9 pm and work on weekends. There are some officers who have not taken any leave in the last 2-3 years and they work Saturdays and Sundays.

6,177 cadres resign within 2 years

According to the HCM City Department of Home Affairs, from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2022, the number of cadres, civil servants and public employees who resigned from their jobs reached 6,177.

Though the city applies a special wage mechanism with additional pay, the pay policy is not good enough to attract talented officers. 

Meanwhile, the private sector is offering very attractive wage policies to lure talents.

The HCM City People’s Committee has proposed that the Prime Minister approve a mechanism which would expand the number of personnel according to the population of localities. 

Under the mechanism, a ward with a population of under 30,000 would have 17 officers. As for wards with more than 30,000, there would be one more officer for every additional 15,000 people.

Ho Van