HCM City (VNS/VNA) -More than 20,000 staff at hotels and tourist accommodations in Ho Chi Minh Citywere laid off or put on unpaid leave in the first quarter of the year due tothe COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released by the municipalDepartment of Tourism on April 13.

Nearly 7,700 staff or 27 percentof 28,000 workers at hotels and tourist accommodations in the city are workingwith reduction in working time, the report showed.

Hotels and touristaccommodations reported a year-on-year decline of 58 percent in turnover in thefirst quarter of the year.

Many travel firms have put mostemployees on leave without pay until the pandemic ends as their operationsremain suspended.

Travel firms have seen touristnumbers and revenues plummet by 50-60 percent in the first quarter compared tothe same period last year, and some firms reported a 95-100 percent drop intourist numbers and revenues.

In the first quarter of theyear, 90 percent of more than 1,000 small and medium-sized travel firmssuspended operations as the coronavirus shut down travel.

Large firms have operatedwith only a few employees on the job and have not operated trips.

In the first quarter of theyear, the city saw a year-on-year fall of 42 percent in overseas tourists and26 percent in turnover.  

HCM City’s Department ofLabour, Invalids and Social Affairs plans to spend 236 billion VND (10 millionUSD) on relief payments for 47,000 workers who have been laid off and teachersand childcare workers at private nurseries and pre-schools that were closeddown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Initial statistics compiled bythe department showed that as of April 13, nearly 47,000 workers in the cityhad been laid off as enterprises cut capacity or suspended operations,including 840 workers at industrial parks and export processing zones, 1,970workers at HCM City High-tech Park, and 44,000 workers at enterprises operatingin 24 districts.

A total of 31,500 teachers andchildcare workers went on leave without pay due to closures of privatenurseries and pre-schools.

Le Minh Tan, director of thedepartment, said that local authorities would continue to update the list ofunemployed workers to offer financial relief.

The unemployed will receivemonthly relief payments of 1 million VND (42 USD) per person for three months,starting in April, Tan said.

Around 3.2 million workers areemployed by 415,000 enterprises in the city./.