VietNamNet
Bridge – Chinese contractors have been
trying every possible way to refuse Vietnamese laborers, while bringing Chinese
unskilled workers to Vietnam to undertake simple jobs.
The Hai
Phong Thermopower Plant project in Tam Hung commune of Thuy Nguyen District in
the port city of Hai Phong was kicked off in November 2005. In order to make
sure that the project can be completed as initially scheduled, the EPC
(engineering, purchasing, construction) Japanese and Chinese contractors need
2000-3000 regular workers.
Foreign unskilled laborers undertake the jobs
reserved for Vietnamese
In
principle, the thermopower plant project would create tens of thousand of local
jobs. However, things are quite different in reality. According to Do Van Hai,
Administration Director of the Hai Phong Thermopower Company, said that at some
moments, there were 2000 Chinese laborers working on the site. Meanwhile, at
present, nearly 1300 Chinese laborers are working on the site of the factory
No. 2.
Meanwhile,
the report of the company to the Thuy Nguyen district’s police showed that the
figure is 1500 Chinese workers. These workers have been granted the work
permits for one year. However, the inspections have found a lot of Chinese
unskilled workers who did not have identity papers, who were expelled.
Meanwhile, no one can give accurate figures.
Since
the majority of workers on the construction site are Chinese, the minority
Vietnamese workers there have been suffering from the discriminatory treatment.
Hoang
Van T in Thuy Nguyen district said that he and other Vietnamese workers are
paid 100,000 dong per day. Meanwhile, Chinese workers get higher wages for the
same kinds of works.
A
Vietnamese security guard at the My Son apartment block said that he received
1.5 million dong a month from Chinese contractors, with no allowance.
Meanwhile, the contractors have recently brought a Chinese security guard who
is paid 10 million dong, or 7 times higher than Son’s income.
Local authorities powerless?
According
to the Hai Phong Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, about
200 domestic and foreign enterprises are using foreign workers.
By the
end of May 2012, 2206 foreign laborers had got work permits, 87 percent of whom
are Chinese. After one year, when the work permits get expired, employers have
to go to management agencies to report the labor force situation or extend the
work permits. However, very few employers strictly follow the procedures, and
many of them do not give back the work permits.
“The
number of foreign workers has been changing regularly. Meanwhile, state
management agencies do not know if they are in Vietnam or leave for China,”
said the representative from the city’s laor department.
Also
according to the representative, the Vietnamese side only has the function of
supervising the speed and the quality of the project implementation, while it
does not have the right to intervene the contractors’ decision on the labor
force and wages.
He went
on to say that Chinese contractors always ignore the advices by Vietnamese
investors on recruiting Vietnamese workers. They still keep using Chinese
workers, saying that Chinese have better skills and qualifications.
The
Chinese contractors have also reasoned the language barrier between them and
Vietnamese workers and bad discipline of Vietnamese workers.
However,
in fact, an executive of the Hai Phong Thermopower plant has affirmed that a
lot of Chinese workers are illiterate, and they can only sign into the payroll
to get wages.
Nguyen
Quang Hao, Head of the Ben Rung Police Station, said there are 1600 Chinese
people residing in two communes of Ngu Lao and Tam Hung. Most of them live on
the houses set up by the contractors, while the other 300-400 workers live on
rent rooms
Source:
Dat Viet
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