VietNamNet Bridge – The majority of labor leasing companies have been operating illegally. This is a conditional business sector, while there has been no legal framework to manage the enterprises in the field.

Laws not respected

Nippon Manufacturing Service International Vietnam in district 3 in HCM City only has the function of providing advice in human resource management. However, over the last many years, the company has been leasing laborers to Japanese invested enterprises in many provinces and cities.

Especially, the service still has been provided even though the watchdog agencies discovered the illegal operation and asked to stop it. The company posted ads on Japanese newspapers about its labor leasing services in Vietnam, introducing itself as the first enterprise in the country which got the license for providing the service.

The Nam Trieu Trade and Translation Service Company in Tu Liem district in Hanoi reportedly provided hundreds of workers to the enterprises in industrial zones (IZ) and export processing zones (EPZ).

“We gave warnings many times to enterprises that Nam Trieu does not have the function of providing labor service and asked Nam Trieu to stop the service. However, since enterprises are lacking workers, they have been quietly lending a hand to the illegal behavior of Nam Trieu,” said Nguyen Thu Binh from the Hanoi IZ and EPZ Management Board.

“It is the workers who will most suffer in this case,” Binh added.

Meanwhile, the service has been much in high demand. The director of a civil engineering company said that he likes the service, because this allows him to keep a compact personnel apparatus, while he still can be sure that works will be implemented as expected.

“We don’t have to spend time on looking for workers, recruiting them, training and fulfilling the duties like paying wages, taking insurance policies, compensating workers in case of accident and dealing with the strikes,” he said.

Immeasurable consequences warned

While the demand for the service has been on the rise, Vietnam still does not have a sufficient legal framework to regulate the market.

As a result, a lot of service providers, exploiting the lack of understanding of laborers, have been avoiding to fulfill their duties. The service providers don’t take healthcare and social insurance policies for laborers, appropriate parts of wages.

In many cases, workers complained that they cannot take leave and don’t have laborers’ basic rights. Especially, the labor leasing companies may transfer the laborers to other companies to make profit, or they even abandon laborers, while ignoring the workers’ legal benefits.

Pham Minh Huan, Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, said the ministry is drafting the decree that guides the implementation of the 2012 Labor Code.

It is expected that the labor leasing service would be provided only 14 careers, namely interpreter, secretary – administration assistant, receptionist, tour guide, sales assistant, project assistant, office informatics officer, accountant, electricity and electronics workers, workers and monitors in industrial hygiene, teacher, marketing officer and security guard.

According to Nguyen Vu Diep, Head of the Labor Division of the Hanoi IZ and EPZ Management Board, labor leasing companies will be required to have big capital funds to ensure that workers would get compensation in case the employers cannot pay wages to workers.

DDDN