Labour scarcity badly hits Vietnamese garments & footwear industry

14 Oct '05

2 min read

Lack of skilled labour has put garments and footwear manufacturers in critical condition; the shortage has also made these manufacturers compromise with quality and suffer cancellation in orders from abroad.

Following the situation, Vietnamese manufacturers hired more work forces but it is difficult for them to match international standards of quality and procure fresh orders from foreign customers.

In spite of offering attractive perks and incentives, garment and footwear companies fail to employ new workers.

Orders placed by European customers in winter were not met with as the workers were unexpectedly absent from work and this may in the final analysis spoil the reputation of Vietnamese textile-garment manufacturers.

Same situation prevails in HCM City where most textile-garment companies exist, said Nguyen Duc Hoan, Chairman of the HCM City Association of Garments, Textiles, Embroidery and Knitting (AGTEK), and Director of the Song Ngoc Garment Company.

Nguyen Duc Hoan has to seek labour from central areas like Thua Thien – Hue and Quang Ngai for his firm. These new workers need training, that runs up to three months, end of which 50 percent workers quit.

Industry experts believe that 'social preconception' is the main cause for workers' leaving. For some, it is 'much work and less pay' policy of industrialists that forces them to leave this industry.

Adding fuel to fire, world prices for garments and textiles remain unchanged, and cost of materials and other local resource materials are growing unabated. Since China has cheap labour and high production, it is the only nation that can fight this situation.

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