Vietnam's migrant labour scandal
The Vietnamese Government intents to send
100,000 workers overseas annually under its new "labour export" programme. In the first half of 1996, about 20,000 workers were dispatched. This dramatic increase in the number of guest workers (only 5,000 were sent abroad in 1995) is expected to alleviate the growing unemployment crisis. The country's "market economy with a socialist orientation" includes
8-10 million unemployed workers.
by Gerard Greenfield
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS market Vietnamese labour in the East Asian "Tigers', Japan and the Middle East, by presenting them as hardworking and docile. Although it is argued that the rights of guest workers are protected, many of them have been subject to physical abuse, poor working conditions and underpayment of their wages. In 1993 Labour and Specialist Export Service (LSES) in Ho Chi Minh City signed two contracts with Korean firms, involving 2000 workers. The workers were sent to South Korea to work in garments, plastics and leather factories. The contracts signed by LSES banned workers from striking or quitting their jobs. This is despite the fact that LSES is a state-run company owned by the Labour Department of Ho Chi Minh City which responsible for protecting the well-being of Vietnamese workers both at home and abroad.
According to a report in the newspaper, Tuoi Tre, workers previously sent to South Korea by LSES had 20% of their wages paid to the Vietnamese government and another 4% deducted for bank transfers. This left workers with only US$76 per month out of the US$100 stipulated in their contracts. Despite the eight hour day agreed to in their contracts the working day was increased to 12 hours without overtime. When workers confronted the manager over pay and working conditions they were beaten and their wages were cut. One of the firms, Prince International, also paid US$980 per month to a Vietnamese labour official from LSES to "manage" the Vietnamese workers. New Destinations
Despite the experience of workers already sent to South Korea these "exports" will continue. A total of 4500 Vietnamese workers were sent to South Korea in 1993. In 1994, Vinaconex, a state-run trading company under the Ministry for Construction signed a contract with a South Korean firm, Dong A (East Asia) Construction to send 2,000 workers to Libya. And in 1995 over 5,000 workers were sent to South Korea.
The government is also seeking to
Fi the market for Vietnamese labour in In May 1993 the Vietthe Taiwanese loyment of
Vietnamese guest workers as a means of alleviating Taiwan's labour shortage. Two months later an "agreement on labour imports" was signed and the first group of
1000 workers was sent to work in construction and textiles companies later that year.
Since then several agreements have been signed with the Taiwanese government, which is seeking to use the Vietnamese workers to replace the country's relatively
'expensive' and "militant' Filipino workers.
At present there are 15,000 Vietnamese guest workers in East Asia and the Middle
East, but this does not include the tens of thousands of Vietnamese workers still in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Today, only 5,000 of the 90,000 Vietnamese guest workers in the former USSR have regular employment. Low wages (averaging
US$20-30 per month have forced many to leave their jobs in search of other work.
Despite the rhetoric about training, 40% of the workers sent overseas were employed in labour-intensive light manufacturing and another 26% were employed in heavy industry and construction. According to an official report in 1994:
"Some dissatisfaction was expressed over limited training opportunities, and 11% of workers returned home because of violating labour discipline. Some workers complained of low wages, poor living and working conditions."
These workers have been in the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Europe for over a decade. Between 30,000 to 50,000 were sent there under a special economic cooperation agreement signed in 1982. A year later the Vietnamese Government suspended its participation in the ILO following deductions were being made from the wages of Vietnamese guest worker to pay off part of its massive external debt to the Soviet Union. Two years later on May 31, 1985, Vietnam formally withdrew from the ILO.
Nonetheless similar agreements were signed with Algeria (1984), Iraq (1986) and Libya (1988). Over the next ten years 220,000 workers were sent overseas as guest workers. By 1992 there were 320,000 Vietnamese guest workers overseas. Half were sent abroad in 1987-1989, which is after economic liberalisation and the open-door
In 1989, only four years after Vietnam withdrew from the ILO, the director of the international relations department of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Tran Luc, acknowledged that through the export of workers "the state can earn foreign currency to pay her debts" and that "the Vietnamese working people have a duty to contribute 10-40% of their incomes in strong foreign currency to the Vietnamese government for the construction and defence of the Fatherland."
Vietnam
Exporting Labour is big business
There are about 40 state-run and private businesses which are licensed to "export labour." This includes businesses run by government departments and ministries at national and provincial levels.
Since Vietnamese policy-makers have argued that the labour export programme is an "efficient and long-term solution to the employment problem", both private and state-run labour exporting agencies are able to use money from the government's
National Employment Fund to finance their business activities. One of these businesses is the Labour Centre of Vietnam Trade Unions
(LACETU), established by the Vietnam
General Confederation of Labour (VGCL)
with state funds in 1993. It operates as a semi-private profit-making enterprise and not a workers' organisation.
According its advertising brochure
LACETU is: "ready to supply technical workers for production establishments of various economic sectors and for foreign capitalists' enterprises or companies which are in want of such workers."
While the destinations have changed deductions continue to be made from workers wages, and they are stripped of their rights once they are "exported" overseas. The only real change is the extent to which labour exports no longer used to reduce the national debt, but have become a profitable business activity for private firms and government departments throughout the country. * The author is Research Co-ordinator at the Asia Monitor Resource Center in Hong Kong. Sources for this article include: Tran Luc, Director of the Department for International Relations, Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs. Speech to the National Seminar on the Role of Labour Administration in the National Economy, Hanoi, July 10-14, 1989. Manh Hung, "Ministry probes Lebanon 'slave trade", Vietnam Investment Review, March 20-26, 1995; Migration News, vol.1, no.1, February, 1994, vol.2, no.12, December 1995 Vietnamese Trade Unions, no.2, 1993, pp.9"Employment policy issues", Labour Used in the Social-Economically Active Population From 1993-1995, Project VIE/93/002, Hanoi, July, 1994. Sai Gon Giai Phong, November 20, 1993. Do Xuan Mao, "Labour Planning and Employment", Economic Problems (Hanoi). no.18, October-December 1992. Phuc Tien, "Skilling or selling our labour for peanuts", Tuoi Tre (Youth), March 27, 1993. Translated by Hanh Tran in Vietnam Today. No.65, 1993, pp.11;15; Dam Minh Thuy, "Lao dong Viet Nam o Li Bi (Vietnamese workers in Libya)", Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Limes), no.11, March 17-23, 1994.
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