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./.