Hanoi  - Nearly 7,000 workers at a Taiwanese-owned shoe company in northern Vietnam have gone on strike to demand the company reduce working hours and raise their salaries amid high inflation, a company official said Wednesday.

The workers at Golden Star Footwear Co, Ltd in Haiphong City, 100 kilometers east of Hanoi, began the strike Monday and had not yet returned to work by Wednesday.

"They want the company to reduce their working hours and raise their monthly salary by at least 200,000 dong (12 dollars)," said a company official who requested anonymity.

The official said workers at the company, which exports all of its products to large clients in foreign countries, including Timberland and Prada, are paid an average monthly salary of 900,000 dong (56 dollars), and many must work 13 hours a day.

The official said Golden Star had agreed to raise salaries by 100,000 dong per month (6 dollars), but that workers rejected the offer.

"They say they cannot do anything with just 100,000 dong," the official said.

The city newspaper, Haiphong, reported that the workers were striking because inflation, which hit 21 per cent year-on-year in April, had eroded their salaries. The paper said the city's Department of Labour was negotiating the dispute, and was "encouraging workers to return to work quickly."

Workers at the same company also struck for higher salaries for a week in mid-2007, returning to work after their demands were met.

"Last year, the company threatened to fire the workers and closed the factory when the strike broke out, but then it had to made concessions," the company official said.

Vietnam's inflation rate has risen sharply in the past year, prompting the government to hike interest rates, tighten credit regulations, and freeze some prices. Inflation has forced the country to revise its economic growth target down from 8.5 per cent to seven per cent for 2008. (dpa)