Monday, September 13, 2010

Probe into contract labour to help protect worker rights

The Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs on August 30 began inspecting labour leasing services in five provinces and cities and asked 20 other localities to do the same.

Workers, who are contracted out to companies by the labour services, risked missing out on benefit entitlements and being underpaid, Dang Duc San, head of the ministry's Legislation Department, said.

In Vietnam , labour leasing services employ, train and sign contracts with clients and lease them out as workers to companies. The service first emerged here in 2001.

Such companies are not sufficiently regulated under the labour laws despite their large presence around industrial parks especially in Hanoi , HCM City , Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Can Tho, San said.

Employees could be exploited because they are kept ignorant of the agreements made between their employer and their labour leaser even though many of the contracts are long-term. Currently regulations only apply to short term contracts.

In some cases the labour leasing companies pay salaries less than the amount agreed with the employer, San said.

He said that neither the company nor the labour leaser accepts responsibility to pay the workers' health and social insurance.

According to San, most labour leasing companies are only licensed to introduce jobs, not to lease out labour.

The inspection will be conducted in Hanoi , HCM City , Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Can Tho by the end of September and authorities in 20 other provinces have been told to conduct similar inspections and report to the ministry.

The management offices will be able to use the findings to issue regulations to protect workers' rights, San said.

The ministry will soon issue regulations that restrict the services to arrange only short-term labour leasing agreements.

Changes are needed so that long-term contracts employees could sign directly with the company they work for, he said./.

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