Nguyen Tien Hai said the new provisions would establish a legal basis for dealing with excessive charges imposed by service companies and strengthen protection of workers’ rights and interests.

Companies must clearly state in contracts the service fees collected from workers, deposits and any other payments. The Minister of Home Affairs is tasked with setting standard contract templates and specifying the charges companies are permitted to collect, such as visa fees and medical examination costs required by individual overseas labor markets.

According to the Government, the measure will provide greater oversight of the total costs workers have to pay while limiting unauthorized charges or attempts to impose excessive fees by simply renaming them.

Written agreements required before worker training

The law strengthens mechanisms designed to protect Vietnamese workers while they are employed overseas. Companies are required to appoint representatives in destination countries to support workers and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.

When preparing a pool of prospective workers, companies must sign written agreements with them before organizing training.

These agreements must clearly specify fees for training, vocational skills development and foreign-language instruction, as well as any other charges, if applicable.

Commune-level People’s Committees in areas where companies conduct worker preparation activities are responsible for publicly announcing that they have received notification of such activities, monitoring operations in their jurisdictions and handling violations within their authority or referring cases to the relevant authorities.

The law also expands the list of prohibited conduct to include enticing or persuading workers through promises, providing false information, deceptive advertising or consultancy, or using other methods to mislead them.

Fraudulent appropriation of property is prohibited, as is exploiting overseas employment activities to organize illegal departures, human trafficking, exploitation or forced labor.

Organizations are also prohibited from recruiting, preparing or sending Vietnamese citizens abroad for work in ways that infringe national security, public order and safety, social morality, or the health of workers and the wider community.

Notably, the amended law prohibits Vietnamese workers from going overseas for massage jobs. Organizations are likewise barred from recruiting, preparing or sending Vietnamese workers abroad to perform such work.

The restrictions also apply to industries, occupations and jobs that are not permitted by authorities in the destination country.

Priority for skilled Vietnamese workers taking jobs overseas

The amended law introduces a policy giving priority to sending trained workers with professional and technical qualifications abroad for employment.

The objective is not only to increase workers’ incomes but also to help them improve professional skills, foreign-language proficiency, workplace discipline and industrial working practices while gaining exposure to modern technologies and management methods.

Workers taking jobs in certain industries, occupations or positions requiring professional or technical qualifications, or in sectors prioritized for development by the State, will be eligible for specific policies and mechanisms.

These policies are intended both to support overseas employment and to make effective use of returning workers’ skills and experience, in line with Vietnam’s socioeconomic conditions at different stages of development.

The revised legislation also introduces measures to strengthen connections between returning workers and Vietnam’s domestic labor market, helping the country capitalize on a workforce that has acquired professional training, skills and overseas working experience.

Thanh Hue