Rules on foreign staff tightened

All foreign workers in Vietnam must have the necessary paperwork

Under the new rules, local agencies will have to organise work permits and sort out labour-related procedures before foreign workers, consultants and engineers arrive in the country.

The government’s Decree 46/2011/ND-CP on  employment and management of foreigners working in Vietnam, which replaces Decree 34/2008/ND-CP, will come into force on August 1.

Clause 6a of the new decree states that foreign contractors must give high priority to hiring Vietnamese workers where the work is within their capacity.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs’  (Molisa) Employment Department’s vice head Le Quang Trung said the decree would help “seal” loopholes in management of foreign workers in Vietnam.

Specifically, if a project needed foreign workers with professional knowledge suitable to the project, the investors’ bidding documents must include a detailed plan on foreigners to be employed. This plan must include information on the positions involved, how many foreigners will be employed and details of their qualifications, as well as their experience and the length of their contract in Vietnam.

The decree also states that for projects needing 500 labourers or more the foreign employers has 60 days to recruit local workers. For projects requiring less than 500 labourers, the foreign employers has 30 days for this recruitment.

However, if they cannot recruit enough Vietnamese  workers in the given timeframe, provincial and municipal people’s committee’s chairmen can allow them to recruit foreign labourers for those positions they could not fill with Vietnamese employees.

People’s committee chairmen are responsible for steering relevant bodies to provide Vietnamese workers to foreign investors.

“The government’s new move is of great necessity. Foreign workers are depriving local workers of many job opportunities,” said a Bidding Department representative from Vietnam Industry Construction Group’s Song Hong Joint Stock Corporation.

According to the Employment Department, foreign labourers in Vietnam come from 65 countries, with the majority coming from China, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. Up to May 2011, there were over 74,000 foreign labourers in Vietnam.

Trung said many provinces like Ninh Binh, Dak Nong and Lam Dong had thousands of unlicensed foreign labourers, most of whom were unskilled workers.

Under the existing Labour Law, foreign labourers working for less than three months in Vietnam are not required to obtain work permits, but they must fulfil declaration procedures.

Under the Decree 34/2008/ND-CP, those labourers must submit relevant documents like qualifications and health certificates to local departments of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

However, Trung said that contractors often declared that labourers were working for less than three months to get around obligations and avoid procedures.

He also said the Molisa  had suggested this regulation be revised so that all foreign labourers in Vietnam would be required to have work permits regardless of how long they worked in the country.