Workers attending orientation education before going abroad.
Laborers’ lack of interest
The labor export policies in the province come from the fact that there are nearly 27,000 laborers need to get a job every year. However, labor export activities are still limited as people are not fully aware of the effectiveness of labor export, especially the poor, near poor and ethnic minority workers.
Currently, there are only 1 company and about 10 representative offices from other provinces and cities operating in this field. Therefore, the management and introduction of labor export are quite difficult. In order to attract more laborers to work abroad, some companies, upon counselling and recruiting laborers, often introduce the jobs as leisurely and easy, with high incomes, decent living conditions and accommodations... However, the reality is that laborers have to accept hard work, extreme weather conditions, unsupported accommodations, unsatisfactory wages compared to what was agreed in their contract... When the incidents occur, many businesses refuse to protect the legal rights and interests of the laborers.
Many workers only want to work in Japan, South Korea, America, or Germany, but these markets require high professional qualifications of workers and offer only small recruitments. Many overseas labor markets have low salary, hard work, and frequent job changes, so workers are not interested. The situation of working in hazardous, dangerous environments and unsuitable salary are still present in many countries. In addition, a number of laborers are limited in knowledge, understanding, language skills, etc... which cause disadvantages for them in all legal transactions.
Practical support policies
According to the resolution passed by the Provincial People's Council (PPC), the support policy for labor export will focus on supporting the cost of vocational training, language classes, necessary knowledge education and expenses related to paperwork for working abroad. In addition, it also focuses on supporting personal loans and risk management for laborers when they participate in labor export. Total budget for the 2017-2020 period is over 23.56 billion VND, with 10.8 billion VND from the central government budget.
At the meeting to discuss solutions to the promotion of labor export, Mr. Nguyen Duy Thong, Director of the Provincial Center of Job Services, said that markets such as Japan, Germany, Korea, etc.... are increasingly demanding on the quality of labor. Laborers, in addition to their health and workmanship, must also meet other skills, such as language, behavior. Therefore, the advocacy to improve workmanship and language skills is very necessary in this era of integration. Also, agencies that send workers abroad should coordinate with vocational schools in the province to lower the cost in orientation education for laborers.
There is good news for exported laborers as the province will continue to help labor export participants get loans up to 50 million VND. The PPC will also give one additional million VND per participant to encourage laborers to participate in the provincial labor export program. Poor people, near poor people, people from ethnic minorities, and relatives of people with meritorious services to the Revolution will be provided with 10 million VND per participant. Particularly, Phong Dien District People's Committee has a supporting policy of 7 million VND per participant in the area.
The province is stepping up the program to send laborers to work abroad. In the near future, a provincial steering committee of labor export will be set up to drastically direct the implementation of the labor export program in the area with the synchronous participation of companies, organizations and associations.
Mr. Ha Van Tuan, Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, said: "Thua Thien Hue focuses on exploiting the labor-requiring markets in which the province has advantages, such as manufacturing, construction, garment, food processing, agriculture in Japan; manufacturing, electricity, electronics, nearshore fishing in Korea; some service industries in the Middle East countries…"
Story and photo: Hue Thu