HCM City (VNA) – Policies to ensure sustainable livelihoods for
disadvantaged labourers must be resilient and not depend on outside support,
heard a conference held by the Institute for Workers and Trade Unions in Ho Chi
Minh City on July 31.
According to Vu Minh Tien, Deputy Director of the Institute for Workers and
Trade Unions, disadvantaged workers, who find it difficult to secure stable jobs,
account for 25 percent of total labourers in the country.
By the end of 2016, there were 13 million disadvantaged labourers, including
4.2 million people with disabilities, 6.5 million impoverished labourers, 1
million migrant workers, 180,000 labourers with HIV/AIDS and 190,000 drug
addicts and prostitutes. Eighty percent of them live in rural areas and have
received little education or vocational training.
Although disadvantaged labourers in rural areas can access state loans, they
were still trapped in poverty, said Vo Van Tan, Chairman of Can Gio district’s
trade union.
Vu Van Hieu, lecturer from Ton Duc Thang University, stressed that residence
registration rules have been a barrier to migrant workers. They should not be
used to distinguish between local people and migrants, which hampers migrant
labourers’ access to job opportunities and other social services, he added.
For her part, Le Thi Nhung, lecturer of the University of Labour and Social
Affairs, underlined that capacity, health, competence and public discrimination
hampered disabled workers from finding work.-VNA