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BANGKOK
(ILO News): The recruitment process for Indonesian and
Vietnamese migrant workers in the
Republic
of
Korea
will be discussed at two international meetings being organized by the
International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Government of Korea.
The
two national workshops – one in
Indonesia
and one in
Vietnam
- will discuss ways of making the recruitment and selection processes
used in
Korea
more efficient and transparent, and to find remedies to the problems
Indonesian and Vietnamese workers commonly confront.
With 15,000 workers in
Korea
, Vietnamese are the largest group of foreign workers in the country.
About 6,000 Indonesians are also employed in
Korea
(both figures from 2007).
The meetings, on the “Improvement of the Recruitment and Preparation
of Migrant Workers to
Korea
” will take place at the Aryaduta Hotel in
Jakarta
on Saturday 29 to Sunday 30 March. , and at the Cong Doan Hotel in
Hanoi
on Tuesday 1 to Wednesday 2 April.
Discussions in the workshops will focus on improving the Employment
Permit System (EPS), the government-to-government hiring scheme used
by the Korean government to bring foreign workers into the country.
The EPS was introduced in 2003 and replaced the
widely-criticized Industrial Trainee System (ITS) as
Korea
’s main mode of admitting foreign workers.
The ITS, which was discontinued in 2007, was criticized for not
giving foreign workers enough rights, including the right to adequate
compensation., and was believed to have resulted in widespread
irregular migration and the violation of migrant workers’ rights. By
contrast the EPS in theory gives foreign workers the same rights as
Korean workers, including the right to join a Korean trade union and
access to insurance and pension schemes.
A 2007 survey commissioned last year by the ILO and Human Resources
Department of Korea found that of all the workers surveyed, Indonesian
and Vietnamese workers spent the most on recruitment, including
pre-departure training, medicals, passports, visas, and air tickets.
On average, the Indonesians spent US$3,000 and the Vietnamese
US$1,700. Indonesian and Vietnamese workers are also the most likely
to rely on recruitment agencies – 36 per cent and 35 per cent
respectively.
The
survey also found that the language is a major hurdle for the workers
in
Korea
, with about 90 per cent of the workers from each country saying more
time pre-departure should be devoted to learning Korean.
Many said as a result of inadequate language skills, they have
difficulty making their complaints understood by their employers.
About half of the Indonesian and Vietnamese workers said that they had
had some reason to complain about their work or treatment.
Still, about 50 per cent of the Indonesians and 40 per cent of
the workers from Vietnam said they would be willing to spend more time
and money on training if they could stay in Korea
more than 3 years, (the maximum currently allowed).
“These workshops bring to the same table the people at the forefront
of managing labour migration in
Korea
and its sending countries,” said Manolo Abella, Chief Technical
Adviser of the ILO’s Asian Programme on the Governance of Labour
Migration. “This ensures specific concerns are addressed. Hopefully
the end result will be reduced recruitment costs, better matching of
workers’ skills and employers needs, and better working conditions
for migrant workers”.
The
workshops are being funded by the ILO-Korea Partnership Programme.
For more information please contact:
Manolo
Abella
Chief Technical Advisor, EU Migration Project
ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Tel: +6687 496 2521
Sophy
Fisher
Regional Information Officer
ILO Regional Office for
Asia
and the Pacific
Tel: +662 288 2482
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Public Information
