Since June 2012, breakfast meals for workers of Taekwang Vina Industrial, one of the leather-shoe producing firms in Dong Nai province’s Bien Hoa 2 industrial park, have been subsidized by the firm and cost only VND 2,000.
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| The workers of Taekwang Vina purchase their VND2,000 breakfast at the dining room of the company |
Since June 2012, breakfast meals for workers of Taekwang Vina Industrial, one of the leather-shoe producing firms in Dong Nai province’s Bien Hoa 2 industrial park, have been subsidized by the firm and cost only VND 2,000.
Instead of eating dirty low-cost breakfasts outside the company to save their meager wages, workers of Taekwang Vina Industrial have the opportunity to enjoy clean and healthy meals, which cost only VND 2,000 each and are served with a variety of foods, such as banh canh, which is a Vietnamese noodle that can be made from tapioca flour or a mixture of rice and tapioca flour, as well as pho, hu tieu, and noodles with spring rolls.
Nguyen Thi Thu Thao, a worker at the company, said while enjoying her steaming hot noodle soup, “Here, it costs only VND 2,000 instead of VND 15,000 at outside shops, and it is always VND 2,000 no matter what you eat. It is the cheapest price that I have ever paid for a meal.”
VND 2,000, which is obviously never enough to buy anything other than a motorbike parking ticket, is the total amount a worker pays for each breakfast meal at Taekwang Vina Industrial. Every morning, workers stand in line to buy VND-2,000 meal tickets before going inside the firm’s dining room to get their breakfast. There are about 4,500 meal tickets sold every day at the company.
Le Van Quang, another worker, said happily, “We love to have breakfast in the company’s dining room, not only for the cheap prices but also these clean tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks that we are using.” He added, “Thanks to the company, we can save more money for our rent.”
Do one thing, solve many problems
According to Dinh Sy Phuc, president of Taekwang Vina’s labor union, to manage their lives with meager wages, workers had to buy cheap food from outside the company. Therefore, they often faced food-borne illnesses and underweight issues, which had a negative impact on their health and productivity.
“That’s why we decided to help them. Since June, we have offered them low-cost and healthy breakfast meals in our dining room. Before that, many surveys had been carried out to find out the average price and nutrition of workers’ meals in many shops and inns. The result showed that if the real cost of each meal is VND5,000, it will be sold at VND10,000 – 15,000.”
“Therefore, we provide them with a cleaner and healthier breakfast, costing only VND 2,000 each, under our cost price, VND5,000. The different levels are taken from our welfare funds and profits,” Phuc added.
To prevent cooks from stealing food, the company had to be careful when recruiting them, as well as hiring a huge security force to inspect the goods in and goods out 24 hours a day, according to Chung Sinh Tai, human resources director of Taekwang Vina.
In addition, a “credit supermarket” was also opened to serve the firm’s workers who run out of money at the end of each month. In this internal supermarket, workers can buy rice, washing-powder, shampoo, and fish sauce at VND500 – 2,000 lower than retail prices outside the company. Every month, this supermarket allows each worker to buy goods with VND500,000, which will be eliminated from their wages later.
These activities have brought back more advantages than the company expected. They not only help the workers but also clear the area in front of the firm’s gate, which used to be a meeting place for lots of vendors and workers in the mornings. “Furthermore, workers are able to get work on time and increase their productivity, since they don’t need to worry about breakfast anymore,” Phuc shared.
(Source: TTNews)
