Nguyễn Thuý Anh, head of the National Assembly Committee for Social Affairs speaks at the meeting. — VNA/VNS Photo Trọng Đức

HÀ NỘI — In the future, vocational training should be paying attention towards sending highly skilled Vietnamese workers abroad to do jobs with management skills, and gradually phasing out the catering of manual labourers such as builders and housemaids, said the National Assembly’s Chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân.

Working overseas helped improve the lives of many Vietnamese people, but there were many people working in unworthy and sometimes questionable jobs that result in "very tragic consequences" or adversely affect the image of the country, Ngân said at a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Monday.

In the meeting, the members discussed the draft revised Law on Vietnamese Employees Working Overseas to update the bill 13 years since it was developed and adopted.

The revised law focuses on amending and supplementing types of contracts for working abroad, and further clarifying regulations and business conditions for entities engaging in sending, training and recruiting human resources for overseas work, said Đào Ngọc Dung, Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs.

The revised law also has detailed regulations on the costs for workers abroad and responsibilities of the businesses to the workers, he said.

Addressing the evaluation report to the NASC, Nguyễn Thuý Anh, head of the NA Committee for Social Affairs, said that some amendments and supplements were not fully assessed to ensure their feasibility.

It was necessary to collect opinions from other NA committees and related businesses and workers to complete the revision.

The NASC members agreed with the revisions of the Law on Vietnamese Employees Working Overseas.

Many deputies stressed that the enactment of the law should aim to institutionalise the Party’s views and policies on sending Vietnamese workers abroad under contracts as well as support and protect the Vietnamese workers which contributed to increase people’s incomes and improve occupational skills.

“It was necessary to recognise the activity of sending Vietnamese people to work abroad under contracts as a form of creating jobs and increasing incomes for workers,” said NA Chairwoman Ngân.

The law revisions must be suitable to the country’s social changes and economic development, she said, adding that the simple and repetitive jobs will soon be replaced by robots and there is a need to focus more on highly skilled jobs.

Along with being transparent and creating favourable conditions for businesses, it was necessary to strictly handle illegal and irresponsible acts towards workers, she added. — VNS