Low wages, how can workers access housing?

At the 2023 labor forum held on the afternoon of July 28, many opinions representing union members, employees and union officials at all levels expressed their concern about housing issues for workers.

On the sidelines of the forum, talking to Nguoi Dua Tin , Mr. Dinh Sy Phuc - Chairman of the grassroots union of Taekwang Vina Company, Dong Nai province shared about the issue of housing for workers and laborers.

Mr. Phuc said that there are also many migrant workers in his unit and a large proportion live in rented houses. Therefore, workers are very concerned about the issue of how to have access to social housing.

He also pointed out that workers usually have a salary of 7-8 million, so savings are almost negligible, and if there is any, there is only a very small amount left.

Dialogue - Low wages, how can workers access housing? — Mr. Dinh Sy Phuc is concerned about how workers can access social housing with such a small amount of money (Photo: Huu Thang).

“With this small amount of money, how can we access social housing?”, considering this is a question, Mr. Phuc expressed the concerns of workers, hoping that the National Assembly and relevant ministries and branches will have solutions to help workers in the coming time.

At the 5th session, the 15th National Assembly discussed the draft Law on Housing (amended) and is expected to pass it at the 6th session.

“Workers have high expectations for this amendment to the Housing Law. Because workers always want to have access to their own apartments, houses, or rooms,” Mr. Phuc said.

At the same time, Mr. Phuc also hopes that the Law will be built in the spirit of how workers (low-income groups) can access housing.

Previously, speaking at the forum, Mr. Nguyen Viet Anh - a member of the Viettel Post Joint Stock Corporation, expressed his opinion that several decades ago, when the country was still very poor, almost anywhere there were factories and enterprises with many workers, there were also dormitories, schools, medical stations, and cultural houses.

Up to now, the country has developed more but many industrial zones have hundreds of thousands of workers but the apartment buildings do not meet the needs of workers, affecting their lives. Workers have to rent houses, because of little money, so the rented houses are cramped and unsafe.

Mr. Viet Anh shared: “We witnessed many families of 4-5 workers living in just over 10 square meters, the children slept on the bed, the parents slept on the floor on a mat. Many families did not want to let their children stay with them and had to send them back to their hometowns to save money. Some workers were about to give birth but the landlord demanded their house; some workers were near Tet and the company owed them their wages so they did not dare to go home, but stayed, and the landlord demanded money. At that time, fortunately, the union promptly provided some support…”.

Therefore, he hopes that the National Assembly and the Government will pay attention to the housing issue for workers, because if they are cared for, they will settle down, have better labor productivity, and contribute to building the country.

Dialogue - Low wages, how can workers access housing? (Image 2). — Delegates attending the forum (Photo: Huu Thang).

Responding at the forum on issues related to policies to support the development of social housing and accommodation for workers, Chairman of the National Assembly's Law Committee Hoang Thanh Tung said that one of the important contents stipulated in the draft Housing Law being submitted to the National Assembly is incentives and investment support to promote social housing and accommodation for workers.

Accordingly, the draft law has proposed many support policies, such as allocating suitable land funds for social housing development, which is the responsibility of local authorities; needing to arrange suitable land funds for low-income workers; having preferential policies (exemption and reduction of land use fees, land lease for investors to access land to develop social housing; preferential policies on taxes, credit)... to attract the attention of many investors.

Workers also enjoy interest rate support packages to access social housing. For worker accommodation, this is considered an important institution of the industrial park.

Infrastructure investors will invest in worker accommodation, then rent it out to workers at preferential prices to solve accommodation for workers right in the industrial park.

Investors building accommodation for workers also enjoy similar policies as those building social housing.

Currently, the National Assembly Law Committee is coordinating with the Ministry of Construction to collect opinions from National Assembly deputies, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, and businesses to perfect the mechanism and policies, and will submit the law to the National Assembly for approval at the 6th session .

See also:

>>> The story of "children lying on the bed, parents lying on the floor" at the Laborer forum

>>> Workers are interested in social insurance and housing.

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