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Canada needs 1000 unskilled workers? Really?
News that a labor export company is recruiting 1000 people to do farm work in Canada has stirred the public, because Canada has been well known as a hard-to-please market.
Alsimexco is a Vietnam Airlines subsidiary that, according to its website, specializes in recruiting workers in the aviation industry.
According to an account in Thoi Bao Kinh Te (VnEconomy), Alsimexco’s managing director announced the company’s pending recruitment of 1000 farm workers on May 17. Its notice said that every worker will receive a base salary of US$1100. They will also extra money for overtime work and a bonus. The labor contract will be for an initial three years, and extendable for two more.
To qualify for consideration, applicants must have at least a junior high school diploma and demonstrate English communication skills. Each worker who is selected will have to pay $9500 to Alsimexco. The fee covers the cost of a Canadian visa, airfare and a work permit, as well as brokerage and management fees.
Talking with reporters about the ‘special order’, an official of the Labour Export Association said it’s not clear whether Alsimexco has gotten the order to recruit 1000 workers for Canada from a brokerage company or from an individual. He’s waiting, he said, for confirmation by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) that such an order exists.
Nguyen Ngoc Quynh is the head of MoLISA’s Overseas Labour Management Department. Quynh said his office is checking the order, which Vietnamese law requires MoLISA to verify the order within 10 working days. Not until it’s verified may labor export companies begin recruiting labourers
It seems that Alsimexco has ‘jumped the starting gun.’
A believable story?
On June 2, 2010, the Overseas Labour Management Department instructed Alsimexco to stop recruiting labourers for working in Canada.
Department Director Quynh said Alsimexco may not recruit laborers until it has a permit in hand, and that the company will be fined.
There’s no indication of impropriety about the contract, however, and so the information that 1000 workers will be sent to Canada to work continues to excite the public. This is the first time that such a large number of people have been recruited for work in Canada. It’s been more than a year since any work visas have been granted here by that country.
After Alsimexco announced it was recruiting labourers for work in Canada, the Ha TInh Import-Export and Investment Company said that it too, in cooperation with Alsimexco, is recruiting labourers for work in Canada. Notably, the Ha Tinh company requires that every recruit pay $17,500, or twice the amount required by Alsimexco.
Meanwhile, Alsimexco has denied that it has joined forces with another company to find labourers for working in Canada.
Experts say that though Canada has a high demand for immigrant workers, it is not easy to obtain a work visa, because it sets very high requirements. Laborers must have English skills at the IELTS 5.5 level, at least. Thus, Canada mainly imports high grade workers.
Two Vietnamese companies, Chau Hung and Simco Song Da, ‘gave up the game’ after many years of trying to develop a labor export market in Canada. Reportedly they found it nearly impossible to recruit workers who met the Canadian standard. Industry experts think Alsimexco’s experience may be no different.
vietnamnet, TBKTVN
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