Four public interest companies accused of underpaying employees will be further investigated.

 Labourers receive low wages

On August 27, the results of an inspection showed that at the HCM City Urban Drainage Company, Public Lighting Company, Saigon Traffic Construction Company and the Green Park Company, the average wage was VND22.2 million per month (USD1,000), while at other state companies the average was only VND7.3 million.

While regular employees earned modest wages, directors were collecting as much as VND2.6 billion in 2012. The head of Government Office, Vu Duc Dam, affirmed that such high wages were not in accordance with regulations on salaries for managers at state-owned enterprises.

According to the law, the highest salary for a chairman should be VND36 million per month, with bonuses not exceeding 1.5 times their regular salary.

The Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Pham Minh Huan, said they have asked HCM City authorities to expand their investigation to other companies.

On August 28, leaders of HCM City Green Park Company held a press conference in which they confirmed that in 2012 they paid VND759 million to their director and VND655 to the head of accounting. In order to hide the disparity they used accounting tricks in the calculation of employees' salaries.

After admitting wrongdoings, the company assured the public that they had recovered VND1.3 billion of funds that were wrongly disbursed and would accept fines for violating labour law. In addition, they signed two-year contracts with temporary employees who were actually working on a long-term basis.

The HCM City Urban Drainage Company has also been under fire for signing temporary contracts with 163 regular workers. The company signed fixed-term contracts with 355 workers who were qualified for contracts with an indefinite period. The company announced on August 28 that they will make compensation and sign lawful contracts with workers. Money that was wrongly distributed to seven managers in 2011 and 2012 will also be recovered, they claimed.

The Public Lighting Company and Saigon Traffic Construction Company, however, continues in its attempts to deflect allegations resulting from the investigation.

In an interview with Thanh Nien News, the chairman of the Public Lighting Company, Tran Trong Hue said, "Everyone has worked hard for their wages."

Pham Van Vinh, head of Saigon Traffic Construction Company claimed that they had been wrongly accused. He said that he will work with the company's accounting department to find the discrepancy between the company's books and the results of the People's Committee Office investigation.