Earlier this month, Tuan, president of a workers’ union in Dong Nai province, received 150 Tet gifts, each worth about 300,000 VND, from the General Confederation of Labor.
However, instead of cash, transactions or physical products, workers had to open an account with financial company HD Saison, fill out information, download the app and open a credit card with a limit of 5 million VND. Workers were instructed to purchase products on e-commerce platforms, Tuan added.
Tuan said the “gifts” worth VND 300,000 fell under the VND 5 million credit cards. Once a worker purchases a product, the cards would be activated. If they purchased beyond the capacity of the cards, debts would be incurred as usual. Workers must also pay an annual card maintenance fee.
“I’m afraid that workers will spend too much of the money given to them. They are not familiar with credit cards, so they can easily get into debt,” Tuan said, adding that so far these gifts had not yet been offered to workers. .
The union president of another company in Dong Nai, who said that about 100 Tet gifts were given to workers, said those gifts might have been given with good intentions, but there were problems with execution.
He said workers who received gifts would be in difficult circumstances, but using the cards would require a smartphone. Union leaders would open the accounts themselves, buy the products for the workers and cancel the cards.
“Canceling the cards requires many different calls, with fees reaching tens of thousands of Vietnamese dong due to the involvement of many departments. After some workers received the gifts and were unable to cancel the cards cards, they filed complaints with the union,” the president said.
Unions in Dong Nai are expected to receive 4,000 such gifts, distributed by the labor confederation. But so far, very few people have signed up to receive them.
Similarly, in the neighboring town of Binh Duong, a union official said workers were not very enthusiastic about receiving such Tet gifts. They were concerned that the finance company could get their hands on their data and feared overspending and debt.
Nguyen Vinh Quang, deputy head of the labor relations department of the confederation, said that every year the union has several Tet programs for workers. This is the first time that the confederation has organized Tet online programs, in collaboration with HD Saison and several e-commerce platforms.
These units offer several types of discounts, and from January 15 to 24, more than 40,000 people received 300,000 VND. Tet gifts, and more than 35,000 people completed their purchases, totaling more than VND10 billion, Quang said.
Quang said these gifts aim to help workers become familiar with online shopping, which is in line with the government’s policies on digital transformation and cashless transactions. The confederation also wants workers who work overtime or work in remote areas to be able to easily shop online, he added.
The confederation declared that HD Saison was a legally operating financial company. As giving the Tet Gifting is a new business, but it posed problems, mainly because workers were unfamiliar with online shopping and preferred cash, Quang said.
Regarding concerns that workers could incur debt when using credit cards, Quang said the confederation and HD Saison agreed that from Jan. 25 to Feb. 7, when the program ends, credit cards issued will not will only have 300,000 VND. After purchasing products, workers could cancel the card at no additional cost.
If workers are unfamiliar with online shopping, with their agreement and that of local unions, union officials and HD Saison employees will help them use the card or purchase products on their behalf.
