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Communist Vietnam Fights for a 40-Hour Work Week

Ha Nguyen

   HO CHI MINH CITY - Happy families are all the same, according to
   Tolstoy. Unhappy families, though, have too many members who are
   overworked, according to Nguyen Thien Nhan, one of the officials at the
   forefront of Vietnam's fight to decrease the work week down to 40
   hours.

   As one of the few communist nations still left on the globe, Vietnam
   has a legal work week of 48 hours, six days a week -- even while other
   nations are now questioning if it is realistic to expect employees to
   be productive for even eight hours a day, 40 hours a week. Nations from
   Chile to Australia have trended down to 35 hours. Vietnam is now
   pushing companies toward the 40-hour mark, with considerations for an
   official law in the future.

   Advocates such as Nhan argue that making people work for longer hours
   does not increase their productivity. He also referred to the stress on
   families, urging people to imagine how their own households would be
   strained if someone were out to work for as much as half of the day.

   "Do we want our husbands or wives, our children or siblings to work
   nine to 10 hours a day all year round, or 10 to 12 hours a day for six
   months?" Nhan, who is secretary of the Vietnam Communist Party Ho Chi
   Minh City central committee, said. "We need to answer this question
   ourselves, before we even discuss overtime."

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