HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has asked the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to study recent reports that Vietnamese workers sent to work in Taiwan were paying brokerage fees that were higher than regulated.

The ministry has been asked to report its findings to the Prime Minister.

According to a local media report, under the ministry’s regulations, a person has to pay a maximum fee of US$4,000 to a labour export company to work in Taiwan. The fee includes expenses for agency, recruitment, passport and other legal procedures.

However, many labour export businesses continue to collect higher fees from workers. Some labour export enterprises in Hà Nội were found to be collecting fees of between $5,000-6,000 from workers who wanted to work in Taiwan.

Taiwan has been Việt Nam’s top labour market in recent years. It accounted for 60 per cent of all Vietnamese guest workers last year. Currently, some 164,000 Vietnamese temporary workers are employed there. Taiwan is expected to receive over 20,000 Vietnamese workers this year.

The high brokerage fee is among the reasons why Việt Nam could risk losing this potential market.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs last December imposed a total administrative fine of over VNĐ2 billion ($88,000) on 16 labour export businesses for violating regulations governing their activities, including violations on collecting fees illegally.

Apart from administrative fines, the highest penalty was imposed on Hải Phòng Tourism Oil Service Joint Stock Company, which had its licence revoked, while others were ordered to suspend operations for a period of 3-9 months.

During the suspension period, these companies are not permitted to sign or register labour supply contracts or recruit, train and send workers overseas for work.

The ministry has mapped out a project to support Vietnamese labourers working abroad under contract.

Under the project, each poor labourer from rural areas would be provided VNĐ3 million for vocational training and VNĐ3 million for foreign language courses. They would also receive financial support to help cover other expenses before they go abroad. – VNS