General Assessment of the Organization and Operation of Employment Introduction Organizations According to Vietnamese Labor Law

affecting the rights of workers. "There are units that charge fees from 100,000 -

150,000 VND/person/time and find a way not to refund or deduct from 20% to 60% after the labor contract is signed for the employee but is refused by the labor recruitment unit" [41]. Some businesses collect labor contract fees from employees and then take them to places that need to recruit without prior agreement or discussion with the labor recruitment unit. Therefore, when employees reach the place that needs to recruit, they know that the position is already filled or are refused contact, wasting time, effort, money, and often creating disputes in which the damage belongs to the employee.

- Regarding the name, there is also confusion between the State's employment service centers and socio-political organizations with employment service enterprises. According to Decree 72/CP, State employment service units are called employment service centers. Currently, many employment service enterprises also use the name employment service centers, which easily causes misunderstanding and misjudgment of society about employment service activities of employment service centers.

- Lack of regulations on GTVL activities, not clearly defining the responsibilities of GTVL enterprises, legal regulations and business ethics of GTVL activities...

Since Decree No. 19/2005/ND-CP:

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With the above-mentioned shortcomings, in order to rectify the activities of enterprises operating in the field of public service provision, on February 28, 2005, the Government issued Decree No. 19/2005/ND-CP stipulating the conditions and procedures for the establishment and operation of public service provision organizations, and for the first time officially put into management the system of enterprises operating in the field of public service provision through the form of granting public service provision licenses to qualified enterprises. The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs issued Circular No. 20/2005/TT-BLDTVXH guiding the implementation of Decree No. 19 to put the public service provision activities of enterprises into conditional business lines. According to the provisions of Decree No. 19 and Circular No. 20, to participate in public service provision activities, enterprises must ensure sufficient conditions such as: having a stable head office;

The enterprise must have a term of 36 months or more, be in a convenient location; have full consulting rooms, labor supply, labor market information; be equipped with computers, faxes, telephones, etc.; have at least 5 employees with college degrees or higher and must have a deposit of 300 million VND at the Bank. The enterprise must be responsible for monitoring the status of the employee for a period of one year (for cases of labor contracts of 12 months or more) or during the period of labor contract performance (for cases of labor contracts of less than 12 months). Enterprises operating labor supply will have their licenses revoked if they commit acts of fraud or deceit against employees. If they are administratively sanctioned for violating labor laws 3 times/year or one act is sanctioned 3 times, the enterprise will also have its license revoked [17].

In particular, the Decree also stipulates that the name of the enterprise operating the public service provision must not be the same as the name of the public service provision center. This provision has overcome the shortcomings of Decree 72, which is the basis for determining the State public service provision center and private public service provision enterprises.

However, although the law stipulates that, in reality, most of the GTVL enterprises do not meet the above conditions. Many enterprises operating in this field, if including the salary fund and the value of office equipment, are only worth a few tens of millions of VND, and some enterprises have the most valuable asset being a telephone. Personnel and facilities are not guaranteed to comply with the law. Many enterprises operate with only a room with enough space for a table and a few chairs, a job introduction board, and no signboard to avoid inspection by authorities.

After Decree No. 19 took effect, in two major cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs conducted a pilot inspection of a number of enterprises operating in the field of public services.

In Ho Chi Minh City, according to the report of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, by the end of 2006, there were 2,728 registered business locations for the provision of public services, but in reality, only 27 registered businesses were eligible for a public services license under the new regulations of Decree No. 19. Ms. Dinh Kim Hoang - Deputy Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said that currently, most of the public services businesses in the city have

narrow space, area from 6 - 16m2 , inadequate office equipment

enough, the majority of human resources do not have a clear understanding of the labor market, and have not been able to link the requirements of employers with those of employees [45], which leads to very poor efficiency in labor market activities.

Although we know that the activities of many GTVL enterprises are currently very chaotic, and some are even established just to deceive job seekers, dealing with these units is very difficult, due to the lack of coordinated coordination between departments and branches. According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Dan, Head of the Labor and Wage Department, Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs: GTVL is a conditional business sector. To operate in this field, in addition to having to register a business with the Department of Planning and Investment, enterprises must be granted a license by the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to be eligible to operate [58]. However, in reality, enterprises are using the "trick" of registering many different industries when applying for a business license. Therefore, when the authorities come to inspect, if they discover violations of the enterprise, they will only issue a record of administrative fines and ban the GTVL operation, but will not be able to close the enterprises. On the other hand, when localities went to inspect, businesses used their business registration certificates to bold the words "GTVL" and said "licensed". Ward officials, even district officials, due to not being fully equipped with legal knowledge, simply thought that having a business license was enough to operate. That is why the inspection and handling of recent violations in GTVL was no different from "kidnapping and abandoning the plate".

In Hanoi, according to statistics from the city's Department of Planning and Investment, there are currently 677 licensed businesses in the field of job placement. In fact, out of the total 677 licensed businesses, only 8% of them have job placement activities, the rest have only registered but have not yet operated or have operated but have not reported to the state management agency on job placement. Although the number of businesses registered to operate in this field is large, they operate in a dual capacity, lack a team of staff with professional qualifications, lack information about the labor market and have little understanding of job placement services.

According to the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Hanoi, in 2005, only 23 enterprises reported their activities, accounting for 3.3% of the total number of enterprises registered for employment placement activities. Of the 23 enterprises with the function of employment placement activities, only 11/23 enterprises have started operating and have achieved results. The rest, although reporting, are only operating at a low level [62]. In reality, in their operations, many employment placement enterprises mainly collect information from newspapers and radio, and introduce enterprises that need workers, then collect fees. Fees are very arbitrary, depending on the size of the enterprise being introduced. While public employment placement centers only collect fees from 10,000 VND to 100,000 VND for one employment placement, enterprises themselves set different levels of fees. Many businesses set the lowest fee at 50,000 VND, not to mention the documents that candidates have to pay for, some businesses even charge the first 1-2 months of salary of the employee. The lowest fee that employees have to pay to businesses is 50,000 VND/person. According to the regulations of many businesses with this fee, each employee will be "standardized" to be introduced to 3 places. If they do not meet the requirements, then that's it and the employee will naturally lose the 50,000 VND in recruitment fee and remain unemployed [50]. It can be seen that 50,000 VND for one job search is not much, but if multiplied by the number of employees who have come to the company to pay for consultation but have no job, it is not small.

Most businesses often operate in a "hit and run" manner, providing advice to any worker who pays a fee, but there are rarely any truly stable jobs at the businesses. Most of the jobs obtained through businesses are seasonal, such as marketing, distributing flyers, waiting tables, and the work is also "grab and run" according to the way businesses operate...

Thus, after more than two years since the Government issued regulations tightening the operating conditions of GTVL enterprises, the two cities with the largest number of GTVL enterprises, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, still seem to be at a standstill. Enterprises that do not meet the conditions are still operating freely, operating for profit, charging high fees but with low operating efficiency, and in some cases, there are fraudulent enterprises that cause public outrage, especially job seekers. The situation of collecting fees quite arbitrarily is still quite common in enterprises, this is one of the issues that has caused public outrage for many years but there is still no solution to solve it.

The main reason is that most business owners do not have the expertise in labor management, do not have knowledge in the field of labor - employment, do not grasp information about the labor market and labor law; many businesses take advantage of the job service function to defraud workers who need to find jobs and export labor. The Departments of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs are still slow in implementing the provisions of Decree 19/2005/ND-CP and Circular 20/2005/TT-BLDTBXH on the organization of job placement.

2.3. GENERAL ASSESSMENT OF THE ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITIES OF EMPLOYMENT PLACEMENT ORGANIZATIONS ACCORDING TO VIETNAMESE LABOR LAW

2.3.1. The aspects are

Based on the study of current labor law provisions and the current status of application of legal provisions to public service organizations, we see that:

- The legal regulations on public service provision are increasingly being improved. The legal framework for public service provision activities is the Labor Code (Chapter II - Employment), Decree No. 19/2005/ND-CP and Circular No. 20/2005/T-BLDTBXH which have fully regulated the conditions on facilities, finance, staff for public service provision activities, functions, tasks, rights and obligations of public service provision organizations. In particular, enterprises wishing to conduct public service provision activities must be licensed by the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, which contributes to the rectification and stabilization of public service provision activities and the reduction of negative impacts.

- According to current regulations, the system of organizing public services is not only formed and developed in the field of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, but also developed in socio-political organizations, other ministries and branches, and in private enterprises, state-owned enterprises, limited liability companies...

- The tasks of the GTVL organization are consistent with the nature and content of this organization. The activities of the GTVL organizations have basically gradually met the requirements of the domestic labor market in terms of consulting, GTVL, labor supply and vocational training, contributing positively to the work of solving employment for workers. In particular, vocational training activities by address and linked vocational training have created the ability to arrange jobs for workers. The tasks of the GTVL organization are basically consistent with the regulations on the activities of the GTVL organization, integrating with the employment service system of countries in the region and in the world.

- GTVL organizations have received investment from localities, governing bodies and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs in terms of facilities, locations, factories and equipment for their operations. Investment sources to improve the capacity of GTVL centers from the National Target Program on Employment have been invested in by many

The center uses resources reasonably and invests significantly in labor market information work, contributing to improving the center's operational efficiency.

- The connection in the activities of the GTVL organizations has made significant progress. Many centers have coordinated with each other in GTVL activities, labor supply, GTVL and informed each other about labor recruitment needs and labor resources. There has been a very active and effective exchange of experiences among the centers.

2.3.2. Limitations and shortcomings

However, besides the achieved results, the operation of the GTVL organization system still has many shortcomings that need to be overcome to meet the increasing demands in the conditions of industrialization, modernization of the country and in the context of international integration, namely:

Firstly , although the mechanism and policies on the organization and operation of the GTVL organization have been basically formed, they are still lacking and slow to be amended and supplemented to suit the actual situation, lacking circulars guiding the implementation of a number of articles of Decree No. 19/2005/ND-CP on GTVL fees; there are no regulations on the use of investment capital and capacity building for GTVL centers from the National Target Program on employment; there are no specific regulations on reward policies and handling of violations in the field of GTVL activities; there are no documents regulating the role of GTVL organizations in managing the implementation of registration and payment of unemployment insurance... causing difficulties in the management as well as the operation of GTVL organizations.

Second, awareness of the purpose and nature of the GTVL is not yet complete and consistent. In some localities, agencies, organizations, and leaders at all levels have not yet fully recognized the role of the GTVL organizations in job creation and labor market development, so they have not actively directed relevant agencies and units to carry out planning and rearrangement of the GTVL organizations, and have not created the necessary financial and material conditions for the GTVL organizations to operate.

Third, the progress of reviewing and planning the system of vocational training organizations of localities, ministries, branches, socio-political organizations, etc. is still slow, so in the same area, too many centers are established, exceeding the requirements of the labor market, leading to ineffective operations of these centers and unhealthy competition among centers. After more than two years since Decree No. 19/2005/ND-CP and Circular No. 20/2005/TT-BLDTBXH took effect, the rate of centers established and re-established has only reached about 30% [48]; some localities and socio-political organizations have issued decisions to establish new centers while not ensuring the minimum conditions for establishing centers and operating according to the provisions of Decree No. 19/2005/ND-CP and Circular No. 20/2005/TT-BLDTBXH.

Fourth, the number of staff working in the field of job placement is insufficient and does not meet the requirements in terms of skills and expertise. Coordination between job placement organizations is still poor, especially in the field of providing labor market information, so the capacity of job placement organizations has not been maximized.

Fifth, the number of enterprises with the function of labor trafficking has increased rapidly in recent years, but the state management and handling of violations in this area are still lax, leading to some enterprises defrauding workers in labor trafficking activities, causing damage to workers and negatively affecting the social environment of the whole country. There are cases where after receiving information about prosecution from law enforcement agencies, there is a plan to inspect and remedy the consequences. This situation has not yet had a specific solution to prevent and strictly manage labor trafficking activities.

Sixth, the construction of the labor market information system has not really been properly invested in, and there has not been close coordination with businesses to exchange information on the labor recruitment needs of businesses. Exploitation and processing of labor market information and consulting work

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