One of the dirty little consequences of all the free-market growth in Vietnam is that exploitation also seems to be growing. We watched and discussed a documentary on a thriving industry in Vietnam: temporary employment agencies who entice young, naive women to pay large sums of money to obtain jobs in the big city, earning much more than what they could earn in the country. Unfortunately, the jobs are rarely what was promised and are often very short duration. Sometimes, employment doesn't even last long enough to cover the fees paid to the employment agencies. They do not receive benefits. They work 7 days a week. If they take a day off, they are docked two day's pay, or fired. They are treated poorly by the foremen, verbally and sometimes physically abused.
It seems to be a cozy arrangement between the temp agencies, who make money for each new girl regardless of how long she lasts. They obviously pay the human resources manager to hire these girls. I would assume that the HR manager pays the foremen to be abusive to encourage the girls to quit or get fired. That allows the agency to place a new girl, earning more money and paying more to the HR manager, who probably pays a small amount to the foremen. Everyone makes money in this deal except the women and their families (who helped provide the large payments upfront in anticipation of some of the higher wages being sent back to the family).
I posted recently about corruption, and this is another example. The large multinational firms who have these factories are exercising willful blindness, and the government is more concerned about employment than worker conditions.
Watching the documentary, I was reminded of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. I might need to re-read that book...
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