UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE: “BUDGET” OR BENEFIT FOR BUSINESSES

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE: “BUDGET” OR BENEFIT FOR BUSINESSES

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE: “BUDGET” OR BENEFIT FOR BUSINESSES?

Within the framework of the Law on Social Insurance, Unemployment Insurance has been consulted by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs for stakeholders to supplement and complete before officially implementing, from January 1, 2009.

The discussion with businesses under the support of the Vietnam Chamber of Industry and Commerce took place in Hanoi on October 30, attracting a lot of opinions, sharing problems and difficulties of enterprises in implementing policies.

Unemployment insurance, according to Mr. Le Quang Trung – Deputy Director of the Department of Labor and Employment, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, is a measure to support workers in the labor market. Through vocational training, counseling, and job placement activities, the unemployed will soon return to work. At the same time, it also provides a sum of money to ensure a stable life for employees during job loss.

This draft Decree is divided into 8 chapters and 49 articles. It presents issues such as rights and responsibilities of employees and employers (DN), implementation procedures, complaints, regimes, organizations, unemployment insurance fund, implementation terms.

Accordingly, employees are Vietnamese citizens working in State agencies, socio-political-professional organizations, cooperatives, individual business households, foreign agencies, organizations and individuals operating in Vietnam.

Territory and Vietnamese laborers, employing 10 or more employees, under indefinite-term labor contracts and definite-term labor contracts from full 12 to 36 months, are eligible for participation unemployment Insurance. Notably, this type of insurance is participatory, clearly defining the responsibilities of three parties in settling benefits and benefits for employees, which are the State, the employer and the employee in a three-party manner contribute to the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

This fund will be used to pay monthly unemployment benefits to employees entitled to the regime; support vocational training and job search, pay health insurance premiums for employees who are receiving monthly unemployment allowance; Preserve investment and fund growth according to regulations.

The monthly unemployment allowance for employees will be equal to 60% of the average monthly salary and wages on which unemployment insurance premiums are based for the 6 consecutive months before losing their jobs. On the part of the employer, when participating in this type of insurance, they will no longer have to fulfill the obligations of articles 17 and 42 of the Labor Law regarding job loss allowance or severance pay as before.

There are still many problems

There is an opinion that, before many types of insurance today, unemployment insurance policy is just an extra “burden” of payment for employers and employees. However, at the discussion, from the fact that the participation of the 3 parties makes the contribution of enterprises less, while they do not have to deal with subsidies which are already complicated according to Articles 17 and 42 of the Labor Law.

But employees enjoy good unemployment benefits, which makes representatives of enterprises all comment, these are outstanding advantages of unemployment insurance. The discussion attracted a lot of comments and suggestions from businesses in implementing the contents of the draft.

Representative of Hai Duong Green Bean Cake Association. Mr. Vu Thien Huu pointed out the fact that the signing of a labor contract is the basis for participating in unemployment insurance for the majority of workers in craft village-style production units, being seasonal is very difficult.

Mr. Huu expressed: “We do export goods, depending on orders, so it is very precarious. Sometimes a lot of work, sometimes not. Signed a 1-year contract but no job, can’t sell, how can I pay my salary. Even the employees and employers here do not want to sign because of the unstable nature. The majority of workers are farmers, taking advantage of working at leisure, so it is almost impossible to get the milestone of the labor contract to pay unemployment insurance.

Not only that, according to Mr. Huu, the salary calculation in the units in the association is mainly based on products. But depending on the season, employees have different income levels, so in the labor contract, it is impossible to specify the specific salary, so there is no basis to calculate the minimum premium.

And Mrs. Nguyen Thi Xuyen – Director of Dai Duong M and E Company expressed concern when the employees’ mentality is that they do not want to spend money to contribute any amount, do not want to participate because they are afraid of troublesome procedures.

Not to mention, the level of labor rotation and relocation in Ms. Xuyen’s company must be up to 50% per year, making the monitoring and closing of insurance books very complicated. Therefore, Ms. Xuyen suggested that the drafting committee need to research to come up with the most convenient and effective way for employees and employers like her.

In addition, the issues of counseling, vocational training and job placement at schools and centers are also of great interest to businesses.

They believe that centers need to improve efficiency, work closely with businesses to train workers who can meet both quality and quantity, not train unemployed people and leave them behind unemployment.