VietNamNet Bridge – Of 1,728 Chinese nationals working at the construction site of the Ca Mau Urea Plant, part of the Ca Mau Gas-Power-Fertilizer complex, 1,051 have yet to obtain a work permit, local authorities said.

They had been brought from China by the plant’s main contractor, China’s Wu Hoan Scientific and Technical Joint Stock Company, Le Thanh Tong, deputy head of the Ca Mau Province Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, told Tuoi Tre.

While 611 of them are in the process of applying for a work permit, Vuong Van Cuong, who is in charge of security and foreign workers at the under-construction plant, explained, the 440 others are working on three-month contracts [and do not need work permits].

“The project managers are very busy and [the main contractor] said the relevant procedures for these workers to work in Vietnam were done slowly in China, and as a result their applications for work permits in Vietnam have been delayed,” he said.

Tong said when the construction began [in July 2008], the company had registered a total 1,500 workers for the project, but the actual number now was more than 3,700, of whom 1,728 were Chinese
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The Chinese staff include engineers, managers, and skilled and unskilled workers, he said.

Contractor neglects law

“Such employment of Chinese workers for the project is unreasonable,” Tong said.

Vietnamese workers must be given priority in every project, and only when they fail to meet the contractor’s requirements should foreigners be hired, he explained.

The company had not apprised local authorities about its labor needs for the latter to provide workers, he said.

Even before the work had begun, the department had twice instructed the company about Vietnamese work permit regulations, he said.

“However, several times the department found the company violating such regulations and had imposed penalties.

“The department once even recommended that the Ministry of Public Security expel more than 10 Chinese workers for failing to fulfill regulations.”

As for foreigners working on three-month contracts, they may be exempt from work permit requirements but their employers have to submit a list of such workers together with their personal records to local labor departments, Tong said.

“However, Wu Hoan failed to do this. Recently, during an inspection, when we asked them when they would send us such a list, they merely said they would submit it soon.”

The department has sent a report on the company’s violations to the provincial people’s committee.

The penalties for violations should be stiffened to deter violators, the department said in the report.

Bauxite project to be inspected over foreigner employment Next week, the Nhan Co Aluminum Plant, which is being built in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong, will be inspected in terms of employment of foreigners, the provincial Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has said. As of early this month, the project had employed 269 foreigners, including 267 Chinese and two Australians, Nguyen Duc Nguyen, deputy head of the Department, said. Of the total, 252 works on over-three-month contracts, but only 67 of them, including two Australians, have their work permits granted. As such, 202 Chinese are working without a work permit, he said. Bui Quang Tien, general director of the project management unit, blamed the situation for “the permit application procedure that is cumbersome and time-consuming.”

 

VietNamNet/Tuoi Tre