LookAtVietnam – Vietnamese overseas workers left high and dry by their recruitment companies are having to rely on families to fight their cases.

Workers’ families gather to support their overseas members

They were there to request the agency order Vinahandcop, the labour export company, to bring the workers home.

The 12 had been taken by Vinahancop to Russia but were then dumped without either accommodation or a job. Meanwhile, the export company has denied it has responsibility for the workers.

It follows a number of recently reported cases including a dispute with relatives of 14 workers who left Vietnam for Russia under Petromanning’s Bring Vietnamese Workers to Russia programme.

The relatives also sent a document to national management agencies, saying that the 14 workers had not received their salary for the last year, but were still forced to sign the payroll.

Such cases are becoming increasingly common. Vietnamese workers are being forced to return home early or have to work in bad conditions. In many cases, government agencies discovered that export companies did not even register to take workers abroad.

A total of 72 companies representing nearly 50 percent of licensed labour exports were disciplined for violating the scheme.

Vinahancop has been forced to stop taking more workers abroad for six months.

Forcing enterprises to halt operations or revoking their license is the heaviest possible punishment on companies. However, it seems it’s something that government agencies try to avoid.

Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, head of the Overseas Workers’ Management Agency, said punishment regulations are now very clear. If they suffer financial difficulties then a “bond” previously paid could be taken to aid the workers.

“If labour export companies fall into insolvency, we will use one billion dong from the companies’ security money to pay labourers,” Quynh said.

According to Nguyen Luong Trao, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Manpower Supply (VAMAS), most of labour export companies are really very small. There are 160 licensed companies, and only 50 of them have been able to take more than 300 workers abroad.

VietNamNet/SGTT