Vietnamese required to join labour gangs each year
HANOI - Communist Vietnam has issued an
ordinance that will obligate Vietnamese adults to work 10 days
each year on important projects such as repairing river dykes or
building schools and war cemeteries.
But the ordinance, issued by the National Assembly and which
takes effect on January 1, also has a dose of capitalist reality --
people loathe to get their hands dirty can pay a ``substitution
fee'' or find someone willing to take their place.
An official at the National Assembly said the measure, which
replaces a similar 1988 ruling, would also affect Vietnamese at
foreign companies.
Ordinance 15, which was obtained by Reuters on Monday,
comes at a time when communist leaders are trying to install
patriotic fervour in an attempt to tap Vietnam's internal economic
resources amid a slump in foreign investment.
Older leaders also fret that the country's millions of young
people, who were born after decades of independence wars, do
not have the same sense of sacrifice for the nation that their
parents and grandparents had.
The ordinance said people would be mobilised for various
construction work to benefit the whole community.
It affects men aged 18 to 45 and women 18 to 35, although
exemptions apply to people such as pregnant women, students,
soldiers and war invalids.
``Employers will have to create conditions for their employees to
carry out their duties and rights,'' the National Assembly official
said.
``Those 10 days will be considered as leave without pay,'' the
official said, adding that the substitution fee would be worked
out based on the minimum daily salary in each province.
The National Assembly is Vietnam's legislative organ.
Reuters - November 8, 1999.
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