Borkena
Toronto – Another legislation is tabled in the parliament this week to tighten regulation on job recruitment for abroad. Agencies, local or otherwise, are now required to have a capital between 5 million and 20 million Ethiopian birr ($50K to $250K). The requirement for service providers was only under 1 million Ethiopian birr.
Service providers will also have to get a license from the Ministry of Labour and Skills to operate a recruitment agency. And there are said to be five classifications of licenses based on criteria listed in the legislation. The number of labour force, skills, profession and working capital are among requirements.
The legislation also requires service providers to deposit money for the protection “the workers right, dignity and safety” which will be deposited in the Ministry’s Bank account. It could be in Ethiopian Birr or US Dollar. The amount would be in accordance with the license grade of the service provider, according to a BBC Amharic report. First grade license holders will have to deposit $250,000. The rest are between $20,000 and $200,000 depending on the grades.
If the agencies fail to deliver on returning workers to Ethiopia when it is needed for various reasons, the Ministry will spend the deposit money to do so.
The ministry is also mandated with the power to suspend or cancel licenses.
The government says the decision to change existing legislation is informed by the need to ensure “citizens rights, dignity and safety” is observed as well as to ensure that Ethiopia is “getting the benefit from the sector.”
The new legislation has seven chapters and 85 articles. It will replace the law enacted about eight years ago. The legislation before the draft bill mainly focused on maids to be deployed to receiving countries. It is said that the legislation had gabs on the deployment of skilled manpower.
It is also highlighted that there have been incidents which could not have been addressed by the existing legislation. The Ministry of Labor and Skills will be enforcing the proclamation once approved in the parliament.
With the proposed legislation, the government also began to undertake the recruitment from structures of the labour market linked to a central system.
Requirement on educational requirements is among the issues amended under the new legislation. The legislation from nine years ago required workers to be deployed abroad to complete at least grade eight. The proposed legislation does not seem to be strict about educational qualification.
BBC Amharic reported that some agencies have expressed concern in connection with the financial requirement. There is expectation that the new legislation will limit the number of agencies as most would not be able to meet the financial requirement. The other concern is related to training and educational requirements from agencies. It is seen as a legislation that does not consider the reality on the ground in the country.
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