The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) will tighten labour export management to stop Vietnamese nationals from quitting their jobs in Taiwan before their contracts end.

MOLISA Deputy Minister Doan Mau Diep made the statement at a meeting last week with representatives from 120 companies that sent workers to Taiwan which aimed at strengthening labour exports to Taiwan.

Taiwan has been Viet Nam's top labour market in recent years. It accounted for 60 per cent of all Vietnamese guest workers last year. Currently, about 164,000 Vietnamese temporary workers are employed there.

However, an alarming number of Vietnamese workers have been quitting their jobs. As many as 1,100 workers have left every month since the beginning of this year, nearly double last year's figure, according to MOLISA.

The ministry blamed the loose management of enterprises for the high quitting rate.

To prevent workers from deserting their jobs, the Overseas Workers Management Department under MOLISA proposed that enterprises sending workers abroad could only assign recruiting and training duties to three different branches.

The department would also conduct unexpected inspections on training units to analyse their real capacity, it said.

Vietnamese enterprises found collecting more expenses than they were entitled would be punished and could face closure if they ignored workers' complaints.

The department would co-ordinate with the Viet Nam Labour Export Association to step up oversight and inspection on companies that hire and train workers for overseas jobs to sustain quality and reduce the quitting rate.

Meanwhile, representatives of a number of companies specialising in sending workers abroad told the workshop that Vietnamese workers had low discipline compliance, compared with those from Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Vietnamese workers would break contracts and take illegal jobs, which caused difficulties for Taiwanese employment service companies. In response, the Taiwanese companies required higher broker fees from Vietnamese counterparts, they said.

Diep said the ministry would meet Taiwan's agencies to prevent enterprises from collecting more than agreed upon.

He also said workers had a maximum of 180 days to complain about the fees for working in Taiwan, after they sign agreements with the enterprises.

The number of Vietnamese working illegally in Taiwan was estimated to be 24,000 at the end of last year.

Due to the high rate of abandonment among Vietnamese employees, Taiwan imposed a ban on Vietnamese fishermen in 2004, and froze the travel of inbound Vietnamese caregivers and domestic maids in 2005.

Taiwan repealed the ban and started allowing Vietnamese people to work in July after, the percentage of missing employees fell from a high of 10.2 per cent in 2004 to 5.8 per cent last year.

VNS