MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF THE APPLICATION OF THE VAMAS CODE OF CONDUCT (COC-VN)

   
Cập nhật: 30/12/2015 10:34
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The monitoring and evaluation of the application of the Coc-VN is a process of consulting, promoting the enterprise’s position, better protecting migrant workers and sustainably developing the market. Upon the successful organization of the Conference on the outcomes of the second year CoC-VN application monitoring and evaluation in collaboration with ILO in September, 2014, the Association has implemented the third year CoC-VN application monitoring and evaluation with the below activities and outcomes.

I. ACTIVITIES AND OUTCOMES

1.1 Completion of the study on the option to switch from the 7 ranks of CoC-VN implementing enterprises (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 and D) to star rank.

- On the basis of the study of option to switch to star rank, the Association cooperated with ILO to organize the consultation workshop to collect feedbacks of the Executive Committee’s members, Supervisory Board’s members, Association’s Office and representatives of ILO Office in Hanoi.

The workshop figured out that the application of the monitoring and evaluation mechanism over the past two years was sufficiently, effectively designed in accordance with the requirement to gradually improve the quality of enterprise’s operations. However, there are still some limitations, such as when a lookup is made for an enterprise rating, it’s required to identify what A1, A2, etc. are. This will be more difficult for workers to find out the service quality of the enterprise. Besides, the ranking of enterprises according to the above 7 ranks seemed to be appropriate in the pilot phase, but now, it appears to have too many unnecessary criteria and information for users. Therefore, a new ranking system with a clear ranking list that can provide searchers with sufficient understanding of enterprises with the best, the better quality, etc. should be introduced. This should be a 6 star ranking system which means that the more ranked stars, the better service quality the enterprise has. The best enterprise in each period will be given the 5 star ranking. To gain 6-star ranking, an enterprise must have 4 consecutive years of being ranked at A1 and 5-star. The introduction of  special conditions of ranking (6 stars) aims to encourage enterprises to strive continuously and maintain sustainable service quality.

- Pursuant to the outcomes of this workshop, the Resolution and Decision on the application of star ranking system (from 1-6 stars) to enterprises were issued by the Executive Committee and the VAMAS President.

The Guidebook ‘The Mechanism on Monitoring and Evaluating CoC-VN Implementation’ has been revised, supplemented and its new edition has been issued.

This activity has contributed to the improvement of the monitoring and evaluation mechanism so that it can be applied timely for the third year enterprise evaluation, scoring and ranking.

1.2 Selection of new enterprises to join in the third year evaluation list with the existing 47 enterprises (already evaluated in the second year):

24 new enterprises have been selected. During the implementation, 08 selected enterprises quitted to join the list for various reasons: Changes in ownership, management, organization, organizational structure, and the suspension of permit for worker migration to Taiwan.

To compensate for the number of enterprises applying for postponement, VAMAS has invited 3 other enterprises. Thus, there are 66 enterprises in total including 19 new enterprises and 47 existing enterprises.

Noticeably, while the number of monitored and evaluated enterprises only accounted for 31.4% of all licensed ones, the number of workers sent to work abroad through these enterprises accounted for 64.26% of the total number of workers sent overseas by 207 licensed companies (65 enterprises sent 71,336 workers and 33,418 workers in 2014 and the first 6 months of 2015, respectively; the whole country in 2014: 106,840 workers and 56,173 workers were sent in 2014 and in the 6 months of 2015, respectively).

1.3 Training for all employees of each enterprise:

- 19 out of 19 new enterprises in the third year evaluation and monitoring has registered for the training and provided training for their employees and invited leaders of the Association to provide the training.  

- Training topics were:

+ ILO conventions and national regulations on forced labor and human trafficking

+ Contents of CoC-VN, the importance of CoC-VN implementation by Vietnamese enterprises sending workers overseas

+ Mechanism for monitoring and evaluation of CoC-VN implementation

+ Activities carried out by enterprises for CoC-VN implementation

- 476 employees, including 303 female employees of 19 enterprises participated in the training.

In general, training activities of the company achieved the positive results which provided the basis for enterprises to review their operational processes to supplement, adjust and improve business activities. It is expected that, upon the training completion, enterprises shall:

(i) Have the overall CoC-VN implementation plan;

(ii) Review their operational process in the field of labor export and make the amendments and supplements in order to improve current processes and ensure full compliance with the rules of CoC-VN.

The training outputs revealed a big change in the awareness and understanding among staff of the enterprises as well as an actual improvement in the operation of the enterprises.

1.4 Collection and verification of the information:

- Assigned a staff to monitor, update and verify information regularly from the mass media;

- Received important information from DOLAB, MOLISA’s Inspection Bureau and from the Labor Management Sections in Malaysia and Taiwan, Japan and DOLISAs for efficient use;

- All 66 enterprises submitted a self-evaluation to the Association’s Standing Committee.

1.5 Evaluation of training on necessary knowledge for workers and service quality of enterprises.   

1.5.1 Evaluation through the worker’s feedbacks prior to departure:

The evaluation of pre-departure orientation training to workers was done through the activities of members of the Panel for Monitoring: (i) Meeting with enterprise management to review the performance report of the previous year and identify improvements with the application of CoC-VN; (ii) Participation in the worker’s pre-departure training course; (iii) Dialogue with workers on issues related to orientation training provided, and (iv) Direct consulting through questionnaires. Feedbacks of workers on training content, service quality in this field of enterprises and worker’s expectations to enterprises have been collected through these activities.

The members of the Panel have attended 66 training courses carried out by 66 enterprises, collected the questionnaires from 1,125 workers, including 34 courses for 567 workers going to Japan, accounting for 50.40% of the total number of interviewed workers; 24 courses for 408 workers going to Taiwan, accounting for 36.30% of the total; 3 courses for 62 workers going to Middle East (Saudi Arabia and UAE), accounting for 5.51%; 1 course for 25 workers going to Malaysia, accounting for 2.22%, and 4 courses for 63 workers going to other markets (Australia, Algeria, Macau and Russia), accounting for 5.57%.

Some remarks based on the survey results are presented as following:

(1) The channel of finding recruitment agencies via friends accounted for 55.38%, following by the channel via relatives (17.06%), local staff (11.20%), communication channels (6.32%), and the channel via enterprise’s staff (10.04%). The channel via relatives accounted for the highest proportion as workers told one another about enterprises that have recruited many workers and proven reliability.

(2) Getting loan prior to departure: 836 workers asked for loans to cover all expenses related to their overseas employment, accounting for 74.31% of the total number of interviewed workers. Among these loans, the main funding sources were relatives, accounting for 39.95%, with the average loan amount of VND 52 million; banks, accounting for 32.42%, with the average loan amount of VND 65 million; and the combination funding source of both banks and relatives, accounting for 27.63%.

(3) Fees to be paid before departure: 96.90% of workers were fully aware of fees to be paid when participating in courses before departure and 3.10% answered that they were not fully aware of them. However, enterprises should consider informing sufficiently to all workers in the courses. The survey results also revealed that most of them accept the informed fees. The total cost for each market and the structure of the fees in general were published by enterprises in the recruitment announcement and there was no difference with the norms issued by the relevant state management agencies.

(4) Pre-departure orientation training: Surveyed enterprises have complied with regulations on orientation training for workers in terms of training agenda, duration; trainings were held in sufficient facilities; teachers were responsible and hold relevant certificate of bachelor of language. Several enterprises invested in relatively good training facilities and teachers such as LOD, HITECO, AIC, TRASMINCO, THUAN THAO, LETCO, SULECO, SOVILACO, VINAINCOMEX, HOANG LONG CMS, ADC, TOCONTAP SAI GON. TESHCIMEX, etc., therefore good training results have been achieved.  

Collected questionnaires showed the following outcomes of the enterprises’ trainings:

- 100% of workers participated in the training prior to departure; 

- Answering 11 questions about destination country’s customs, tradition and people, issues to be prevented and avoided, terms and conditions of contracts, pre-departure costs, 97.95% of workers said that they had learnt and were aware of them and 2.05% of workers were not sufficiently aware of some provisions of the labor contract related to deductions to salary by the employer under the local legal regulations or working claim procedure.

- Most of workers asked said they were satisfied with the training service quality of enterprises, teachers and working style of functional units of the company in guiding workers to complete their applications.

(5) Expectations:

Up to 348 workers did not raise any expectation or recommendation, accounting for 30.93% of the total surveyed workers. Of the 777 workers raising their expectations

- 67.82% wish  to work overtime, extend contract and earn decent salary, showing that economic reason was the main motivation to work  overseas. This ratio was 41%, 97%, 98%, and 86% for Japan, Taiwan, Middle East and other markets, respectively;

- Those who wish to  have a job once return to Vietnam accounted for 14.03%, of which, Japan market was 22%, Taiwan market was 0.34%);

- 7.46% wish to improve professional and language skills ; for Japan market, this expectation was highest, namely 23.65%;

- 4.25% of the workers had the desire to start  their own business or working as language teacher in labor export enterprises. This desire was seen mainly in the workers going to Japan.

1.5.2 Evaluation of returning workers’ feedbacks

To objectively evaluate the service quality of enterprises, the Panel has collected feedbacks of workers returning home from the survey carried out by the staff of Vietnam General Confederation of Labor. The number of workers surveyed was 201 of which127 workers were men and 74 workers were women)who were sent to Japan (77 workers), Taiwan (89 workers), UAE (5 workers), Arab Saudi (4 workers), Libya (2 workers), Russia (5 workers), and Malaysia (19 workers).

- The occupational structure of these workers was as follows: Factory workers: 143; Construction workers: 10; Agricultural workers: 5; Fishery workers: 2; Crew of fishing vessels: 12; and other occupations (truck drivers, excavator drivers, nurses): 29.

- Home returning situation: Fulfilled the contract and return in time (179 workers); Contract was extended (3 workers); Returned before due date due to health reasons (9 workers); Returned before due date for personal reasons (10 workers).

- Contract liquidation upon returning:  195 of the total 201 workers surveyed have answered this question, of which 192 came to the enterprise for contract liquidation, 3 did not.

- Career consultant service provided by enterprises to workers upon returning: 93.9% of workers answering this question said that they received the consultant service while 6.1 said they did not.

- Worker’s satisfaction with the enterprise’s service: 200 out of 201 workers surveyed answered this question. Among these, 198 said they were satisfied, accounting for 99%, the remaining 2% said they were not.

- Out of  199 workers answering the question “If your relative wish  to work overseas, will you introduce him/her to the enterprise that sent you overseas?”, 198 workers said “Yes”.

The outcomes indicated that most of workers highly evaluated the service quality of enterprises and the enterprises have fulfilled their commitments with workers. 

In general, this activity showed that enterprises have significant changes in pre-departure orientation training for workers. This was clearly reflected in enterprises’ investment in facilities, teacher qualification, training process standardization, and application of training content, agenda, and duration as regulated. The quality of pre-departure workers has been improved; especially quality of workers going to Japan has been better and more consistent among many enterprises. 

1.6. Evaluation by DOLISAs

One of the channels used for evaluating enterprise’s CoC-VN implementation is the comments of Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (DOLISAs) where enterprises conducted communication, recruitment and problem solving activities for workers and regular reporting to the local labor agency as prescribed.

- To raise awareness and promote the involvement of DOLISAs in enterprise’s CoC-VN implementation evaluation and monitoring, with the initiative of the Project Coordinator and the collaboration with the Department of Overseas Labor (DOLAB), the Association’s leader has delivered the presentation on: The meaning and content of CoC-VN, Monitoring and Evaluating Mechanism for the enterprise’s CoC-VN implementation; the role of DOLISA, MRC and the method of coordination in enterprise monitoring and evaluation among the Department, MRC and VAMAS in 3 workshops on the integration of MRC model in the North, Central, South, with the participation of 133 leaders and staff of 48 DOLISAs, MRCs and Job Centers.

Based on the number of enterprises selected for evaluation in 2014, DOLISAs that have recruiting enterprises sent evaluation report to the Association. 16 DOLISAs conducted this evaluation report. The evaluations focused on the following aspects: recruitment; communication with local authorities in the protection of workers abroad; implementation of the reporting regime as prescribed; some violations to be prevented; best practice and recommendations of labor agencies.

Overall, the evaluation of the above mentioned Departments stated that enterprises have complied with the regulations in recruitment and local reporting. However, a number of issues were noted in the report as follows:

- The maintaining of a more frequent information communication between enterprises and localities;

- The recruitment of workers in poor areas needs to be improved and the number of workers departed was quite modest compared with the recruited number.

- Periodic reporting has been improved, however some enterprises have not fully implemented this.

Several DOLISAs had relatively specific reports assessing every enterprise on strengths  limitations of local labor export serving as a good basis for enterprise to review their activities for improvement in the coming time. Examples of these DOLISAs were those of Ben Tre, Hoa Binh, Hai Duong, Quang Binh, Vinh Phuc, Bac Giang, Thanh Hoa, and Can Tho.

II. REMARKS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OUTCOMES

2.1 Monitoring and evaluation:

2.1.1 Positive aspects:

+ The awareness raising and training for the targeted groups of the evaluation and the providers of information for evaluation have been implemented in a synchronous manner.

+ The involvement of state management authorities, local and central inspection agencies, overseas labor management sections, DOLAB and workers in the evaluation and monitoring process has been enhanced. Particularly, Vietnam General Confederation of Labor has participated in collecting the questionnaires from workers returning home and observed a number of orientation training courses.

+ Frequent exploitation of mass media channels for monitoring and evaluation has been ensured.

+ Enterprise selected for monitoring and evaluation have had positive changes in the improvement of their operating regulations towards the standards of the CoC-VN. Many enterprises did not only passively wait for the Association’s evaluation but proactively assigned the tasks, carried out internal monitoring and evaluation of their departments, resulting in a positive effect on the compliance of the staff.

+ Most enterprises have had positive changes in the observance of law and mechanism on reporting to central and local state management agencies, labor management sections.

+ The Monitoring and Evaluation Panel has seriously, actively gathered information, sufficiently implemented the procedure and mechanism for monitoring, evaluation, ensure the objective and fair enterprise evaluation.

2.1.2 Shortcomings and challenges:

+ For enterprises that were not involved in the CoC-VN implementation monitoring and evaluation: most of these lack enthusiasm,, determination and awareness of branding through the CoC-VN implementation. Many had unprofessional operations and limitations in organizing pre-departure orientation training for workers. Or they even had violations in recruitment, thus, they wanted to avoid or postpone their participation to avoid low rankings. This is both a constraint and a challenge for the expansion of the number of enterprises to be monitored, evaluated and the issuance of quality of service under CoC-VN standards.

+ For enterprises with high ranks: In addition to widely publicizing the rankings, which is a brand promotion for enterprises with high rankings, so far, there has been no specific mechanisms to encourage these enterprises such as priority in selection, introduction to new markets, reduction of some administrative procedures, etc.

2.2 The third year enterprise ranking results:

- Of 66 enterprises ranked in the third year: 26 enterprises (39%) ranked  5 star ; 36 enterprises  (55%) ranked 4 star; and 4 enterprises (6%) ranked 3 star .

- Among 19 new enterprises participating in this year ranking for the first time, only 2 enterprises ranked 5 star (accounting for 10.5%). Among 27 enterprises that have implemented CoC - VN for 2 years, 10 gained 5 star ranking (accounting for 37%). And among 20 enterprises that have implemented CoC - VN for 3 years, 14 ranked5 star  (accounting for 70%). These figures shows that most of enterprises actively participating and being monitored for CoC-VN implementation since the early stage had better operations and significant improvements compared to the first year.

IV EXPERIENCES

3.1 The implementation of CoC-VN and implementation evaluation and monitoring need the involvement, synchronous coordination among Association, state management agencies, labor inspection agencies both at central and local level, overseas labor management sections, and other social organizations.

3.2 CoC-VN implementation, monitoring and evaluation should be integrated with migrant worker protection activities, especially activities of the “Triangle” Project. This will bring about the mutual benefits for all participants. 

3.3 In order to successfully implement CoC-VN in each enterprise, enterprises themselves need to raise the awareness on the meaning, content and importance of CoC-VN implementation for the key management staff and other staff; assign management staff and other staff to monitor and direct the implementation in its departments; review, supplement and improve internal regulations focusing on CoC-VN implementation; monitor, give incentive, motivate employees in the implementation.

3.4 Promote the inspection activity of the Panel’s standing unit and its members to identify good models and the violation of enterprises (if any). This should be done regularly, not only at the end of the year or period. It also has positive impact on the enterprise’s service quality improvement and facilitates the scoring.

3.5 The meeting with workers and questionnaire collection before and after departure shall provide information for enterprise evaluation and give a chance to advise and promote the enterprises in improving their pre-departure training for workers and overseas worker management. 

3.6 The dissemination of good examples of the implementation needs to be done right upon the detection and appraisal, not at the end of the year. This will timely promote and facilitate other enterprises in their improvement.

CONCLUSION

Despite many difficulties, the third year CoC-VN implementation evaluation and monitoring of VAMAS has met the expectations. Also, practical lessons have been drawn from both successes and limitations, and challenges of the expansion pathway have been clearly identified./.

 

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