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Ministry moves to tighten foreign workers management
The Ministry of Labour, Was Invalids and Social Affairs is planning to tighten the management of foreign workers as the number of illegal and unskilled foreign labourers in Vietnam is on the rise, posing challenges to the country’s social security.
In an interview granted to the daily Saigon Giai phong, the MoLISA Deputy Minister, Nguyen Thanh Hoa, said his ministry has recently submitted to the government a draft decree on amendments to Decree No. 34/2008/ND-CP, which outlined more secure measures to better manage foreign workers.
Accordingly, the ministry proposed stricter punishments on foreign workers who violate the set regulations, and tightening the grant of work permits to foreigners, Hoa said.
MoLISA also plans to enhance responsibilities of contractors, investors, police and local authorities in managing and granting work permits, Hoa said, stressing that those are “decisive forces to achieve success in the management of foreign labourers.”
Preliminary statistics released by the MoLISA’s Employment Department show that by the end of 2008, as many as 50,000 foreigners from over 40 countries and territories worldwide had been working in Vietnam.
In the context of Vietnam’s deeper integration into the world economy, a growing number of foreign workers and experts come to work in the country is inevitable and allowable, the deputy minister said.
These foreigners have helped fill positions which cannot be undertaken by local labourers, Hoa said adding that, many of them, however, have no work permits or could not show enough necessary documents for the grant of work permits.
According to a recent survey conducted at 543 enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City which is home to the largest number of foreign workers, around 30 percent of foreign labourers have not been registered with the relevant agencies and another 10 percent fail to satisfy requirements for work permits.
Meanwhile, a large number of blue-collar foreign workers have flocked to Vietnam despite the country’s current restrictions on the recruitment of unskilled foreign workers.
In addition, not a few of foreign labourers have breached local law, adversely affecting social security.
According to the MoLISA deputy minister, the best way to help local workers compete with foreign peers is to improve their qualifications. Well-trained Vietnamese workers with good professional and foreign language skills can find jobs not only at home, but also abroad, he stressed.
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