According to a survey by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour, more than 60% of workers are currently renting accommodation in areas built by local people. Many of these accommodation areas lack amenities and do not ensure security and safety. Nearly 4% of workers live in non-permanent or simple houses, with cramped, damp conditions, lacking light and living amenities. 23% have to use water from wells or drilled wells, with rental prices ranging from 1.5 million VND to 4 million VND/month, accounting for 25%-30% of workers’ income.
According to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour report, the results of social housing development for workers have not met the demand. To date, the investment and construction of 126 projects have been completed, with a construction scale of about 62,700 apartments, and a total area of more than 3.1 million square metres. This number only meets nearly 30% of the needs of workers.
Faced with the urgent situation of workers’ housing, at the proposal of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour, on May 12, 2017, the Prime Minister issued Decision No.655/QD-TTg, approving the project on investment in the construction of trade union institutions in industrial parks and export processing zones (later amended to Decision No.1729/QD-TTg, dated November 4, 2020, of the Prime Minister.
However, there have been limitations during the project’s implementation, due to lack of capital, land, and prolonged administrative procedures, affecting goals and progress. Up to now, only the Ha Nam Provincial Trade Union Institutional Zone, located in Dong Van II Industrial Park, Duy Tien Town (Ha Nam), is the first project to be completed nationwide under the Project.
At its 8th session, the 15th National Assembly passed the amended Law on Trade Unions, effective July 1, 2025. Clause No.2, Article No.31 stipulates that one of the financial tasks of trade unions is to invest in the construction of social housing for trade union members and workers to rent. In addition to cultural, sports, and related technical infrastructure works serving trade union members and workers according to the provisions of law.
This is the task that trade union finance is used for, supplemented in the Trade Union Law (amended) compared to the Trade Union Law 2012. Also according to the provisions of Article No.21 of the Law, trade union members are entitled to social housing rental policies of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour.
Additionally, Article No.76 of the Housing Law (amended) clearly stipulates that the subjects entitled to social housing support policies include workers and employees at enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative unions inside and outside industrial zones.
At the same time, Clause No.4, Article No.80 stipulates that the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour is the governing body of investment projects to build social housing using trade union financial resources for workers and employees entitled to social housing rental policies.
The provisions of the two laws mentioned above, are the legal basis for removing bottlenecks in housing for workers and labourers, supplementing investment resources for developing social housing and promoting the role and responsibility of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour in caring for and ensuring social security, especially the right to housing, improving the quality of life and attracting workers and labourers to participate in trade union organisations.
Labour union experts assessed that the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour as the governing body of the investment project to build social housing for workers and labourers to rent and supplement investment resources for social housing projects is a humane decision.
This is not only a matter of social and economic security, encouraging union members and labourers to feel secure and attached to enterprises, creating a stable and better labour force compared to localities without social housing, but also an issue of great political significance, affirming the position and role of trade union organisations.
For union members and workers, with this good news, they expect that the organisation representing their rights and interests, which regularly grasps the needs and living conditions of workers, will create conditions for them to rent a decent place to live, ensuring minimum living conditions, security, safety at a reasonable price, suitable for their financial capacity.
Another Spring is coming, from the central level to the grassroots, union officials across the country are making efforts to support union members and workers to have a warm and happy Tet, through practical caring activities. Every year, thousands of new Union Shelters are awarded, helping thousands of workers’ families in difficult circumstances celebrate Tet in a new house.
The fact that the General Confederation of Labour is investing in social housing for union members and workers to rent continues to bring new joys and new hopes when in the near future, tens, hundreds of thousands of workers and labourers will be able to welcome a warm and happy Tet in a house that comes from humane decisions.
