Hanoi (VNA)𝐆 – Being unable to recruit skilled workers, some shipbuilding businesses currently have to hire seasonal workers, which has cost them time to provide training and greatly affected their production and business plans.

After being restructured, subsidiaries of the Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (SBIC) have had stable jobs for their employees, but they are still facing a labour shortage and many more workers are quitting their jobs.

Growing loss of skilled workers

Serving as a shipbuilding worker for 27 years at the Pha Rung Shipbuilding One-member Co. Ltd, the 50-year-old Nguyen Ngoc Hong said shipbuilding is a very heavy and hazardous job. Regardless of building, repairing or upgrading a ship, working indoor or outdoor, workers still expose to smoke, dust, noise and heat. The average per capita income is around 10 million VND (430 USD) per month. However, he said, his job is still not as strenuous as that of his colleagues who must cling to high scaffolds to finish details of a ship. Some workers even have to perform their tasks in narrowed interstices of closed, hot and dark holds filled with oil and burnt smell coming from soldering irons, as well as the ear-splitting sound of hammers hitting anvils. Shipbuilding requires knowledge and skills much higher than other jobs’, so workers can be easily attracted to mechanics businesses that have higher salary and not-so-hard working conditions. Therefore, the Pha Rung shipbuilding company is facing a high risk of losing skilled workers if it doesn’t have appropriate treatment of its labourres, Hong noted.

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To Thanh Ha, Deputy Director General of the Pha Rung Shipbuilding One-member Co. Ltd, said after restructuring, the firm now has 730 workers, 100 fewer than in 2018 and only equivalent to nearly one-fifth of the figure in the prime of the shipbuilding industry in 2007. The monthly per capita salary is 9.5 million VND. He noted the recruitment of workers directly engaging in shipbuilding is very difficult due to the fierce competition for skilled workers, which is fueled by companies with better working conditions and salary in nearby industrial parks. In particular, when there are big shipbuilding orders, because it is unable to seek skilled workers, the Pha Rung company has to hire seasonal ones, which costs it time to provide training and greatly affects its production and business plan. To the workers who gave up their jobs, even when the company had plenty of jobs and invited them to come back, they still rejected the offers, Ha confessed. As a business performing well even amidst the recession of the shipbuilding sector, the Song Cam Shipbuilding JSC is also unable to steer clear of the labour shortage. Phan Dinh Luong, Deputy Director General of the Song Cam company, said his business has 930 employees at present. Compared to the current capacity of its infrastructure, it is lacking more than 100 workers. As the Song Cam Shipbuilding JSC and the Damen group of the Netherlands formed a joint venture to build small-sized ships, work over the past years and for the time ahead has always been available. However, when orders are placed, there are not enough workers, he noted.

Salary hike needed to keep shipbuilding workers

Leaders of shipbuilding companies said workers in the industry often love their jobs, and if income is ensured, they will stay attached to their work. Therefore, the most important thing is to ensure sufficient work and timely salary payment. Besides, to keep shipbuilding workers, businesses must properly carry out all policies for their employees, Luong said, elaborating that they must not owe salary, social insurance, health insurance or unemployment insurance premiums while paying attention to other treatment policies like mid-shift meal and appropriate bonuses for workers with high productivity. To deal with the shortage of high-quality labourers, To Thanh Ha, Deputy Director General of the Pha Rung Shipbuilding One-member Co. Ltd, said it is necessary to boost on-the-job training, re-organise labour among divisions to increase productivity, while raising salary for those holding important positions and providing allowances for highly skilled workers. An executive of the SBIC attributed the shortage of skilled labourers in the firm partly to its restructuring and the appearance of new shipbuilding facilities which have lower production costs. Businesses have also paid heed to raising salary for workers, but this sector depends much on whether they are contracted to build or repair ships, so salary has to be aligned with the market as well as their production and business performance, the SBIC leader added./.