Le Thi Quynh, a worker at an electronics company in Que Vo Industrial Zone in Bac Ninh, said the company did not get many orders last year, so there were not many jobs to do.

In such conditions, the company tried not to lay off workers, but encouraged workers to take off work and get 50 percent of their salaries. A Tet bonus decrease is anticipated.

“The company got many orders in 2022, so we received good bonuses for the 2023 Tet holiday. But this year’s Tet bonus is predicted to be half,” she said. 

However, Quynh said she and other workers of the company are still happy because they have kept their jobs.

“We appreciate the efforts by the company’s management board to maintain jobs and salaries, and not to lay off workers,” she said.

Textiles and garments is one of the business fields giving low Tet bonuses this year. Nguyen Xuan Duong, deputy chair of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas), said the average Tet bonus this year will be 30-40 percent lower than last year, and workers of some companies won’t have a Tet bonus.

The Vietnam Labor Federation has confirmed that Tet bonuses this year will be lower, by 10-20 percent on average. Some companies still cannot pay salaries to workers, but there are only a few businesses of this kind.

Though many businesses have decided to reduce bonuses, they are offering relatively high bonuses, especially to managers of large-scale production workshops.

Vu Thi Xuyen, manager of a Taiwanese invested footwear company in HCM City, said the company received many orders for shoe exports to South Korea, Japan and European markets, so workers all had to take extra working hours in 2023.

Xuyen said she has been informed that the Tet bonus will be around VND30 million (monthly income x 1.9).

She said she was happy that the company still got orders last year in such difficult conditions. She and her husband have booked air tickets to fly to their hometown of Thanh Hoa to celebrate Tet with relatives.

Dang Minh, a manager at a Japanese invested enterprise that makes electric equipment, said after Covid-19, her company got many orders from foreign partners, and workers remained employed.

“The company has not made an official announcement about Tet bonuses for this year. However, we are expecting a bonus equal to 8-9-month salaries,” Minh said.

According to a senior officer of the Vietnam Labor Federation, Tet bonuses are not a compulsory duty of business owners. However, enterprise owners do this to show their gratitude to workers.

All the companies in industrial zones (IZs) in HCM City and Binh Duong, the industrial production hubs in the south, have promised to give Tet bonuses to workers.

D, a worker at PouYuen Company, said they would receive Tet bonuses in late January, the same amount as last year. The average bonus is VND17 million, while the highest is VND67 million and the lowest VND5 million.

Previously, the company carried out personnel restructuring campaigns and laid off 9,000 workers.

Hue from Nghe An, one of the workers laid off, said last year, when she was a worker of the company, she received VND20 million in Tet bonus. Other workers who have been laid off have left for their hometowns as they cannot cover the high expenses in the large city.

Pham Xuan Truong, 34, a worker in ThuanAn City in BinhDuong province, where there are 1.6 million workers, complained that workers will receive sweets, vegetable oil and tea for Tet bonuses. Workers all want to receive cash instead of products.

Tet bonuses offered to workers depend on the health of businesses. A worker at Freetrend said in addition to Tet bonuses, the company has the tradition of giving gold to workers who have many years of service. For example, people with 10 years of experience will get 0.1 tael of gold.

Vu Diep