About 92 per cent of labourers return to work after Tet. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi – As of February 15, the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, about 92 per cent of businesses and labourers had resumed operations and returned to work after the Tet holiday, heard a press conference held by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) on February 26.

The VGCL informed the press about activities in support of trade union members and labourers during the Tet festival, the biggest in a year, with priorities given to those in difficult circumstances, social policy beneficiaries and ethnic minorities, among others.

Localities and agencies reported that more than 10.5 million individuals benefited from such activities with total funding of over 7.02 trillion VND (284.55 million USD), up 15 per cent year-on-year.

According to Vu Thi Giang Huong, head of the VGCL's Communications and Education Department, a number of provincial and municipal trade unions received financial support from local authorities with the amount exceeding 100 billion VND.

More than 18,000 Tet programmes were held on this occasion, attracting the participation of nearly 4 million trade union members and labourers, of them over 2.1 million presented with gifts worth nearly 1.3 trillion VND.

Notably, over 106 billion VND was earmarked to help 243,735 trade union members and labourers get train, coach and flight tickets to return home for Tet reunions.

All-level trade unions, agencies and enterprises jointly launched up to 5,049 free buses taking more than 170,150 labourers back to their homes, with funding of nearly 49 billion VND.

Some 1,300 needy labourers who are working in southern localities received free two-way train and air tickets valued at over 7 billion VND to return to their hometowns in the northern region.