BOESL lobbying ROK hard to retain work permits of 500 job seekers
Thursday, 20 May 2010
FE Report
State-run manpower recruiter, BOESL, is lobbying South Korea hard to get back employment permits for more than 500 Bangladeshi jobseekers who are facing job losses for alleged negligence of officials.
Muhammad Abdullah, managing director at Bangladesh Overseas Employment Services Ltd., said he has written to the head of Seoul-based Human Resources Division (HRD) seeking his cooperation to retain the validity of the work permits for the potential migrants.
"We're trying to save the job scopes. Hopefully, the Korean agency will consider our case, although it was our fault," he said.
The roster validity of jobseekers who passed the Korean language test and were on the first batch job roster under the Employment Permit System expired a few months back due to the negligence of a senior official at the BOESL.
The BOESL officials said some 2500 Bangladeshi workers secured jobs, mostly in the Korean manufacturing sector, since 2008 when Bangladesh began catering migrants to the labour market of Korea.
Out of 2710 job offers received, officials said around 2500 workers landed factory jobs under the EPS after completion of all procedures.
This week, the prime minister is in Korea, urging her South Korean counterpart to receive more workers from Bangladesh, who obtained job offers but face uncertainty.
South Korean companies, hammered by the global financial and economic crisis, have put off taking in Bangladeshi workers since March 2009, just a year after it began hiring from Bangladesh under the Employment Permit System (EPS).
But an official said Bangladesh's interest would be better served if the Bangladesh side had taken action to renew the bilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) on manpower recruitment during the prime minister's visit. Signed in 2007, the deal expired last year and an interim agreement is now in place.
Bangladeshi workers had been going to South Korea since 1994 through private recruiting agents under the industrial trainee system (ITS), which was replaced later by EPS.
Under the MoU, two agencies- BOESL of Bangladesh and Human Resources Development of Korea-are entrusted with the responsibility of hiring Bangladeshi workers.
Overseas Employment Ministry officials said the introduction of EPS has not only reduced the cost of migration, but also curbed the dominance of private recruiting agencies, which allegedly leeched on job aspirants, mostly the poor.
State-run manpower recruiter, BOESL, is lobbying South Korea hard to get back employment permits for more than 500 Bangladeshi jobseekers who are facing job losses for alleged negligence of officials.
Muhammad Abdullah, managing director at Bangladesh Overseas Employment Services Ltd., said he has written to the head of Seoul-based Human Resources Division (HRD) seeking his cooperation to retain the validity of the work permits for the potential migrants.
"We're trying to save the job scopes. Hopefully, the Korean agency will consider our case, although it was our fault," he said.
The roster validity of jobseekers who passed the Korean language test and were on the first batch job roster under the Employment Permit System expired a few months back due to the negligence of a senior official at the BOESL.
The BOESL officials said some 2500 Bangladeshi workers secured jobs, mostly in the Korean manufacturing sector, since 2008 when Bangladesh began catering migrants to the labour market of Korea.
Out of 2710 job offers received, officials said around 2500 workers landed factory jobs under the EPS after completion of all procedures.
This week, the prime minister is in Korea, urging her South Korean counterpart to receive more workers from Bangladesh, who obtained job offers but face uncertainty.
South Korean companies, hammered by the global financial and economic crisis, have put off taking in Bangladeshi workers since March 2009, just a year after it began hiring from Bangladesh under the Employment Permit System (EPS).
But an official said Bangladesh's interest would be better served if the Bangladesh side had taken action to renew the bilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) on manpower recruitment during the prime minister's visit. Signed in 2007, the deal expired last year and an interim agreement is now in place.
Bangladeshi workers had been going to South Korea since 1994 through private recruiting agents under the industrial trainee system (ITS), which was replaced later by EPS.
Under the MoU, two agencies- BOESL of Bangladesh and Human Resources Development of Korea-are entrusted with the responsibility of hiring Bangladeshi workers.
Overseas Employment Ministry officials said the introduction of EPS has not only reduced the cost of migration, but also curbed the dominance of private recruiting agencies, which allegedly leeched on job aspirants, mostly the poor.