Hanoi - About 800 workers at a Taiwanese-owned garment factory near Ho Chi Minh City went on strike Tuesday for back pay and bonuses, an employee said Wednesday.

Ho Hong Nghi, a sewing machine operator at the Chin Phong Company in the province of Binh Duong, said workers were demanding their unpaid December salaries and bonus pay for the upcoming lunar New Year holiday, or Tet.

Strikes typically intensify in Vietnam around Tet as workers feel the pinch of holiday expenses.

Nghi said company officials responded by agreeing to pay workers' December salaries, but said they would only pay half of the normal one-month Tet bonus in advance of the holiday. Salaries at the company run between 60 and 120 dollars per month.

Only a few of the company's 1,000 workers had returned to work Wednesday, but the company said it had no work for the others anyway. Orders for Vietnamese garment exports have fallen sharply in recent months due to the global financial crisis.

It was the second strike at a Taiwanese-owned company in Vietnam this year. About 4,000 workers at the Sun Jade Vietnam shoe factory struck January 4 in protest over harassment by managers, but returned to work two days later.

Under Vietnamese law, strikes must be approved by local authorities and the government-affiliated national trade union. In practice, virtually all strikes take place without such approval.

Vietnam's high inflation rate of 23 per cent in 2008 led to a rise in strikes from 541 in 2007 to 650 in 2008, according to government figures. Vietnamese media put the number higher, at 762. (dpa)