The Center for Labor abroad, under the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, and South Korea’s Human Resource Development Authority in Vietnam, organized a job fair in Hanoi on October 12 for Vietnamese workers who have previously worked in South Korea.
62 Korean companies investing in Vietnam also participated in the event.
Hundreds of Vietnamese workers were present at the fair in the hope of finding work opportunity in South Korea. This is the first time the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs has collaborated with Korea's labor agency to hold a job fair.
According to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, the event is very important for creating job opportunities for workers in the context of South Korea announcing suspension of new recruits and Vietnam’s labor export to several other countries also running into difficulties.
The Center for Labor abroad, informed that in preliminary selections 470 labor had been picked up of which 200 had attended a free training course on skills and Korean language, organized by the Korean agency.
270 other workers were recruited through the Center for Labor abroad.
Mr. Choi Byung Gie, Director General of the Center for EPS (Employment Licensing Program for foreign labor working in Korea) told reporters that the job fair will be an opportunity to create conditions for Vietnamese workers who had been working in South Korea and had returned home to find a stable job.
Meanwhile, the Managing Board for Vietnamese workers in South Korea said although South Korea has stopped receiving Vietnamese workers after a huge number overstayed their visa and worked illegally in the country, 40 workers were received again by South Korean employers thanks to their good behavior.
They are among more than 300 workers who have worked in South Korea earlier and returned to their homeland after their employment contract expired.
According to South Korea’s revised Employment Law which took effect in July, all foreign workers will have the chance to work in the country again three months after returning home and meeting employment conditions. They won’t have to test in Korean language and vocational skills.
The South Korean Ministry of Labor and Employment said 2,746 foreign workers returned home from July to September 18 after their work permit expired. Now each month, it will re-employ 400-500 former foreign workers.
A ministry official said that the Korean Government wants to help small-and medium-sized enterprises re-employ skilled workers, and this is being seen as a good solution to reduce the number of illegal foreign workers in the country.
The workers flew to South Korea on Wednesday night, said Luong Duc Long, deputy director of the Overseas Workers Center (OWC) under the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.
These workers are considered ‘loyal’ workers by the employers, since they worked for the same people for a period of four years and ten months and returned to Vietnam on schedule after their contract expired.
As previously reported, South Korea had recently stopped the bilateral agreement on “sending Vietnamese workers to South Korea under the Employment Permit System (EPS) program,” since the percentage of Vietnamese workers in the country who are illegal is currently 57 percent.
South Korea also attached to the document a list of illegal Vietnamese workers. Accordingly, 22,708 Vietnamese laborers are working illegally in the country, of which 11,347 arrived under the EPS program.
South Korea has previously given warnings about a potential halt to the agreement after statistics showed that by December 2011, 48 percent of Vietnamese workers in South Korea stayed on in the country after their contracts expired, the highest proportion among the 15 countries that sent workers to South Korea.
