VietNamNet Bridge – Collecting workers for export turns out to be a more difficult job than labor companies and the local authorities could imagine.

Local authorities feel worried

Nguyen Thi Lieu from the Yen Minh district Sub-department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs in Ha Giang province, complained that it is really a hard job to select laborers for export.

“We have to come to the remote villages and talk with local people about the labor export policies. However, our trips have come to nothing,” Lieu said.

“It was very difficult persuade people to leave the home villages for other countries. And it is now even more difficult to do this,” she added.

A lot of exported workers had to return to Vietnam before the labor contracted terminated, and they are now owing money from left and right. Therefore, other people keep reluctant to leave.

In Tan Son district of Phu Tho province, a lot of workers also had to return to Vietnam before due, including the ones who had to fly to Vietnam to escape from the civil war in Libya in 2011.

Bui Duc Nhan, Chair of the Tan Son district, said 165 local people once went working abroad. However, since they met troubles, no one wants to go abroad any more.

Nhan went on to say that labor export companies now find it hard to find enough workers for export, even though they can offer the good jobs with high incomes.

LOD, for example, now needs 160 workers in Tan Son district for the Macau market. However, to date, only 60 workers turned up to attend the training course at the company before they leave, and 56 gave up the training course later.

The same situation is occurring in Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces, where the percentages of people giving up training are as high as 50 percent. This has made labor companies weep, because they not only wasted the training costs, but also face the risk of failing to fulfill the contracts signed with the foreign partners.

Labor export companies disillusioned

Under the Decision 71, the government would give support to some chosen labor companies in terms of propaganda, accommodation and travel fees to make it easier to recruit workers.

However, many labor companies have got “disillusioned” after realizing that collecting workers for export turned out to be a very hard job.

The Chau Hung Trade JSC, felt happy when it could find 200 workers for export in some provinces in the central region, including Dak Rong district in Quang Tri province. Le Thi Loan, Chau Hung’s General Director said the watchdog agency kept a close watch over the company’s selection and training process.

However, a lot of workers later canceled the con tracts. A report of the company showed that 60 out of the 96 workers left the country and had to come back in 2009, including 50 ethnic minority people. In 2010, the figures were 109 out of 197 workers, including 98 ethnic minority people.

According to the Ministry of Labors, War Invalids and Social Affairs, 33 labor companies have been allowed to collect laborers for export in accordance with the Decision No 71, but only 21 of them have been undertaking the work.

Over VND155 billion has been disbursed to the exported laborers from 62 poor districts throughout the country by February 2012.

Dan Viet