Binh Duong currently has nearly 1.3 million workers, the ratio of workers/number of people of working age is about 77%. In recent years, the province has paid attention to, and promptly and effectively implemented the guidelines and policies of the Party and State, as well as the province's policies related to workers and employees.

In the first year of the 2020-2025 term, Binh Duong and the whole country experienced stressful and difficult periods of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. At the peak of the fourth pandemic wave, Binh Duong was among the most heavily affected localities. In that context, the entire political system was straining to cope with the pandemic while also being flexible and promptly promulgating policies to support people's security. The province spent more than 5.000 billion VND on support packages according to Central and local documents, thereby contributing to reducing the difficulties of people, especially workers from other provinces who could not have a stable source of income during the social distancing period.

Mr. Nguyen Loc Ha - Vice Chairman of the PPC visits and gives gifts to workers with labor accidents and workers with critical diseases

After the pandemic, a series of meaningful and practical activities to ease the pain of Covid-19 were organized by Binh Duong province to support children of workers and employees such as the Program "Let's Continue our Life Together"; Giving Trade Union Savings Certificates to children of Trade union members who died due to Covid-19; The Provincial Viet Nam Fatherland Front Committee donated Savings Certificates to children; "Long-term sponsorship" program of the Provincial Fund for Vietnamese Children for orphans whose relatives died due to Covid-19; The "Support to School" program to support orphans and students with difficult family circumstances; "Zero-VND" Market Program. Also in the past 2 years, 753.000 Trade union members and workers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic have been cared for and supported by the Trade union budget and social mobilization sources with a total value of more than 276 billion VND.

Over the years, Binh Duong has effectively implemented a support program for workers who live far from their hometowns to enjoy Spring and celebrate Tet. From connection programs, hundreds of thousands of workers who live far from home have been supported through models: Spring Train of Gratitude, the Tet charity program, Trade Union Tet Market, etc. During the 2023 Lunar New Year alone, 46.500 workers in extremely difficult circumstances were supported with a total amount of 46.5 billion VND from the provincial budget. The Trade Union alone gave 82.810 gifts to union members in difficult circumstances from Trade Union financial resources; supported 5.662 train tickets, 31 round-trip plane tickets, and 2.700 coach tickets to take union members and workers back home to celebrate Tet.

Workers ask questions to the authorities at the thematic voter contact program with workers and trade union officials in Binh Duong province

In addition to propaganda activities through Trade unions at all levels, the province has built channels for contact, dialogue, and listening to the thoughts and aspirations of workers. Thereby providing timely and positive solutions to resolve difficulties and problems, ensuring the legal and legitimate rights and interests of workers such as the Thematic voter contact program with workers and trade union officials in Binh Duong province; Dialogue program with voters broadcast live on BTV1 channel with the theme "Binh Duong - For a future of living and working in peace and contentment"; Program for provincial leaders to dialogue with elite trade union members.

The proportion of workers who come from other provinces accounts for more than 85%, so Binh Duong has early paid attention to and effectively implemented the policy of building social housing to help workers live and work in peace and contentment and have a long-term engagement with the province. According to Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quang Thuan - Head of the Economic Subcommittee of the Central Theoretical Council, one of the successes of Binh Duong province over the past time is taking care of improving people's lives, especially solving the housing problem for workers. Binh Duong has become the country's leading locality in social housing development with many creative and effective models. The province has determined that ensuring social security, especially stable housing, is an important task for workers to feel secure in their work and have a long-term engagement with the locality because the majority of workers in Binh Duong province are immigrant workers.

Binh Duong has become the country's leading locality in social housing development with many creative and effective models. In the photo: Becamex Dinh Hoa social housing

Ms. Le Thi Dinh, working at Apparel Far Eastern Co., Ltd. (Thuan An City) shared: "Since buying social housing, my family's life has become more stable so I can work with peace of mind. For low-income workers, owning a house is a dream. Thanks to the province's social housing purchasing program, it has helped workers' dreams come true. We hope that the province will continue to invest in developing social housing so that more workers can live and work in peace and contentment ".

From the successes of the social housing model for workers in the initial stages, Binh Duong has built the "Project to develop social housing and worker housing in Binh Duong province for the 2021-2025 period, with an orientation to 2030". The project sets a goal of investing in about 172.879 social housing units by 2030, with a total land area of about 612 hectares and an estimated construction floor area of more than 10 million m², meeting the needs of over 678.000 people with a total investment of about 92.661 billion VND, 2 times higher than the target assigned by the Government. At the same time, the project also encourages enterprises and investors to invest in building housing for workers and employees in industrial zones and clusters.

Improve skills and working conditions

The fourth industrial revolution has led to the birth of new industries, thereby affecting labor supply and demand, and shifting labor structure, increasing the need for high-quality human resources. Meanwhile, currently, society is lacking highly skilled workforces with deep expertise to meet the needs of the labor market and integration.

Binh Duong currently has 86 vocational education establishments. The rate of trained workers reached 82.5% and the rate of workers with diplomas and certificates reached 32.5%, higher than the Central requirement. However, the target for high-quality workforces is still low. In reality, many problems arise for the province in attracting development and improving the quality of workforces. Resolution of the 11th Provincial Party Congress determined "Developing a skilled labor force in sufficient quantity, ensuring quality, with a reasonable structure, combining training with job creation, increasing income and improving people's lives. By 2025, the rate of trained workers will reach 85%, including 35% with diplomas and certificates (an average increase of 1%/year). Every year, creating jobs increases by about 35,000 workers".

Binh Duong focuses on training in the direction of improving skills, abilities, and industrial style for workers

To achieve the set goals, speaking at the Seminar "High-quality human resources for Binh Duong and the Southern Key Economic Region", Vice Chairman of the PPC Nguyen Van Danh said: "Binh Duong will continue to build a human resources training program with many contents and solutions, suitable for each trained subject. For workers and direct workforces in factories, the company will pay attention to training in the direction of improving skills, abilities, and industrial style".

He also said the province would expand models of educational and training establishments and develop vocational education to meet the requirements of the labor market; promote streamlining after secondary school, strengthen propaganda and vocational counseling to create a profound change in awareness of the importance of vocational education for the entire society. Moreover, it would build synchronous labor market infrastructure (career guidance, employment services, labor market information, and forecasts) and organize the provision of effective public employment services; survey and proceed to build a database and general information portal on recruitment to serve enterprises.

"The province will also research and promulgate mechanisms and policies to encourage enterprises to participate in higher education and vocational education activities including training and research and development, closely linking enterprises and educational and training institutions according to the "triple helix" model; encourage vocational education institutions to associate with enterprises to provide new training and retraining for enterprises, creating conditions for enterprises to participate in vocational training activities" - Mr. Nguyen Van Danh added.

Along with that, Binh Duong has aimed to invest in building the province's vocational education facilities to become high-quality schools, providing multi-disciplinary training, including key vocations of international, ASEAN, and national standards and industries to attract investment and socio-economic development of the province; develop preferential policies for apprentices and create jobs after vocational training to attract secondary school graduates to vocational training.

Binh Duong also pays special attention to health care, creating a safe and healthy working environment for workers

In addition to focusing on training to improve skills to meet market needs and increase income for workers, Binh Duong has also paid special attention to health care, creating a safe and healthy working environment for workers. Ms. Nguyen Kim Loan - Chairwoman of the Provincial Labor Confederation said that the province had focused on accelerating the implementation of Decision No. 659/QD-TTg dated May 20, 2020, of the Prime Minister on the Program "Worker health care and occupational disease prevention in the 2020 – 2030 period". Binh Duong has also promoted initial healthcare activities for workers at the grassroots level, improved the quality of operations of ward, commune, and regional health stations; focused on building mobile medical stations in industrial zones and clusters, created close links between the health sector and industrial parks and enterprises in health care, examination and treatment for workers. It also has strengthened inspection and supervision of quality and occupational safety at the workplace, raising awareness and responsibility of employers and workers in preventing and combating diseases and occupational diseases for workers.

Identifying the enterprise community and workers as the most important driving force determining the development of the province, Binh Duong has specific and practical guidelines, policies, and actions to create the best conditions to overcome difficulties for enterprises, while helping workers feel secure in starting a career and living, continuing the journey of building the province to develop more rapidly and sustainably.