Forty Vietnamese workers who are suffering hunger and cold without wages in Ekaterinburg city of Russia’s Sverlov province will be identified and receive assistance.

Head of the Overseas Workers Management Department Nguyen Ngoc Quynh said that they and the Consulate Department of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry have asked the Vietnamese Embassy in Russia to help the workers under the citizen protection policy.

The workers came from northern Ha Nam, Hung Yen and Bac Giang provinces to work for a leather shoe workshop in Ekaterinburg city without going through Vietnam’s labour export companies.

Regarding the second case of 36 Vietnamese workers are now waiting in Moscow to return home, Quynh said his department will ask the Vietnamese business concerned to directly work with their Russian partner to protect the worker rights.

The workers said they were not paid their entire salaries and were working without medical or labour insurance when Russian companies unilaterally cut their contracts. They were sent by the Centre of Dispatch Labour Overseas of the Vietnam Steel Corporation (VSC) in December 2008 and January 2009 to work for Russia’s construction sector under a contract signed by VSC and APC Limited Liability Company in Russia./.