Tehran, Iran, July 4
Trend:
Iran plans to send experts and educated labor force abroad by establishing employment offices in foreign countries.
Director General of Department of Employment Promotion in Ministry of Labor, Cooperatives and Social Welfare has discussed the deployment of qualified workforce abroad in an interview with Trend.
"The Ministry of Labor has a facilitating role and all activities regarding to labor force deployment are conducted via foreign employment offices," said Mohammad Akbarnia.
"At the moment, 120 employment offices are active around the world. They hire employees, while the Ministry of Labor is negotiating with ambassadors of foreign countries and governments and hold meetings with foreign employers," he added.
"The employment department is to facilitate the deployment of workforce and the ministry does not dispatch labor force directly abroad; it only submits the cases to foreign employment offices,"he noted.
"Through collaboration of Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Labor, the employment offices have been established in seven countries," he noted. "The offices are active in workforce deployment and providing legal support. The physical presence of these offices would assist the employment," he indicated. "Currently, the employment offices have been established in Germany, Australia, Canada, Turkey, Oman, and Denmark," he said.
"The offices in foreign countries were previously active in hiring labor forces, but we have made their activities more productive with assistance of the Foreign Ministry and gave them more authority," he noted. "The Foreign Ministry has approved these offices and introduced them to embassies to prepare the ground for deployment of workforce."
"The offices now can easily connect with foreign employment agencies and employers easily," he added.
"Hiring any foreign workforce in any country is based on standards of that country, irrespective of whether or not they are Iranians. The hiring process shall be based on the needs of the country and the specialists' expertise and university degree," he said.
Referring to the salary of deployed Iranian labor force abroad and answering whether it's based on standard wages, he noted, "For example, salary of technical specialists is more than €3,300 per month; however, it's possible that some countries pay lower wages than others."
"According to our offices, the minimum salary for a technical expert in Germany is more than €3,300 per month, and the figure will grow based on the expertise of the engineer," he noted. "It's possible that a simple worker is paid €700 euro per month, and the legal working conditions for foreign labor forces is stable," he added.
"The country that has surplus labor force, should create jobs for them. In the global labor market, around $600 billion has been allocated work force deployment. The role of Iran in this market is not significant," said Akbarnia.
"Considering inflation and high unemployment among university graduates, we should provide them with job opportunities," he added. "The country has deployed around 2,000 work force in last Iranian year (started March 21,2018), and we plan to increase this figure to 5,000 in the current year."
In his words, in addition to the offices working now in seven countries, negotiations are underway to set up offices in Japan, Qatar and European countries.
"Our employment agencies are active in Russia, so we may open office there. Our employment offices are also working in Azerbaijan, but the Ministry of Labor has not established a separate office in the country yet, " he added.