Minister of the Interior: "Increasing the basic salary by 30% is the optimal solution"

The Government has just reported to the National Assembly on the content of salary reform, including adjusting pensions, social insurance benefits, preferential treatment for people with meritorious services and social allowances from July 1. Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra answered an interview about this content.

- Why did the Government submit to the National Assembly a plan to increase the basic salary by 30% from July 1 without fully implementing the salary reform contents according to Resolution No. 27 of the Central Committee, Minister?

- Salary reform is a serious issue, not only directly affecting the lives of tens of millions of cadres, civil servants, public employees, armed forces, and workers in the public sector, but also affecting more than 50 million people who benefit from policies related to the basic salary. Therefore, it is necessary to study carefully, thoroughly, thoroughly, and comprehensively.

From December 2023 to present, the Central Steering Committee on salary policy reform, the Prime Minister, and the Government Standing Committee have held 21 meetings, regardless of days off or holidays, to discuss salary reform contents. From there, the optimal solution was selected to ensure 3 principles: fairness among subjects; careful implementation step by step according to the roadmap; aiming to increase salaries for all related cases.

In that spirit, the Government decided to increase the regional minimum wage for employees in the enterprise sector by 6%; apply a flexible mechanism in income management, creating conditions for state-owned enterprises to develop and improve the lives of employees. The public sector will implement salary reform step by step, according to a roadmap, without causing disruption. The goal is to increase salaries for all cases receiving salaries from the budget and enjoying policies related to social security and social welfare.

During the time when the conditions for abolishing the basic salary and salary coefficient are not yet met, the Government proposes that the Politburo unify the policy so that the Government can report to the National Assembly to allow the adjustment of the basic salary to increase by 30% from July 1.

Accordingly, the basic salary increased from 1.8 to 2.34 million VND per month; pension and social insurance allowance increased by 15%; preferential allowance for meritorious people at the standard level also increased by 35.7% from 2.055 million to 2.789 million VND/month; social assistance standard increased by 38.9%, from 360,000 to 500,000 VND/month.

- According to you, what conditions are not yet guaranteed to implement the new salary policy as the Central Resolution on salary payment according to job position?

- When abolishing the basic salary and salary coefficient to bring everything to a common level to build 5 new salary scales according to positions, leadership titles and job positions, many shortcomings have arisen. Specifically, this plan has not ensured a general correlation, is not fair, reasonable and equal among cases of receiving public sector salaries.

Accordingly, civil servants - strategic advisors get a very low increase, just over 20%. Meanwhile, civil servants and equivalents can get an increase of over 50%, while many groups only get an increase of 3-5%. In many cases, there is no increase or it is lower than the current salary. The average increase rate is about 30.6%.

Due to the change in the structure of the allowance fund in the total salary fund and the removal of seniority allowance for cadres, civil servants and public employees in some specialized fields, many cadres are worried. They are civil servants and public employees in the fields of courts, prosecutors, auditors, inspectors, civil enforcement, forest rangers, customs, education and training. It will be more complicated when there are cases where people have worked for many years in difficult areas, are receiving 70% allowance, but after the reform, the allowance received is much lower.

Furthermore, the relationship between the lowest salary (4.5 million) - average (6.5 million) - highest (29 million) is still low. While the number of titles and leadership positions is very large and diverse, it is very difficult to determine equivalent titles to apply the new salary scale. In many cases, from the department, agency and equivalent levels down to the commune level, when classified into the new salary level, the salary is reduced compared to the current salary, leading to anxiety and reduced motivation to work.

Currently, there are more than 10 legal documents on policies and regimes for cases of receiving social security and welfare linked to the basic salary. Some Party regulations are also linked to the basic salary and many resolutions of the Provincial People's Councils are also based on it to support allowances.

For example, support for students in disadvantaged areas, attracting and employing talented people, or specific local policies, additional support for the elderly... Agencies do not have time to handle and refer to because the law is still in effect and has not been amended or supplemented.

Therefore, the Government has carefully considered and proposed the most optimal, fair and effective solution, which is to increase the basic salary by 30%. This is the most feasible and best solution in the context of not having enough conditions to abolish the current basic salary and salary coefficient.

- What do you say about the opinion that "this salary reform is not thorough when salary is not linked to job position"?

- I don't see it that way because salary reform here must follow a roadmap, the contents in the Central Committee's resolution are clear, and if there are sufficient conditions for implementation, it should be implemented immediately. Difficult and inadequate issues should continue to be studied and gradually improved, without perfectionism or haste, in order to create social consensus and avoid disruption and complication of the situation.

Currently, there are problems with the salary scale based on job positions; salary scale based on positions and leadership titles of civil servants and public employees as well as the salary scale of the armed forces. Therefore, a steady increase in the basic salary is optimal. Uncle Ho also said: "Do not fear shortage, only fear unfairness". Moreover, this is also the highest salary increase ever.

In addition to the 30% increase in basic salary, agencies are also provided with a bonus of 10% of the basic salary fund. Regulations on bonus regimes linked to the assessment and classification of the level of work completion of salary earners will create motivation to work, improve work quality, efficiency, public ethics, and professional ethics.

- Job position is the premise for implementing salary reform, how was this project built, madam?

- The job position project was implemented since 2012, chaired by the Central Organizing Committee. This marked an important step forward in reforming the organizational system and streamlining the payroll. However, this is a large and challenging project, so it must be learned and improved continuously during the implementation process. The Central Organizing Committee has actively studied international experiences, especially from advanced countries such as Japan and Singapore.

Currently, the job position project has been completed in the Government, local and National Assembly sectors; the Party and mass organizations are continuing to complete it. However, the project still has some limitations in terms of form; especially the quality is not as expected.

The Central Steering Committee on Staff Management has not yet submitted to the Politburo for approval the system of job position lists in the political system. The Steering Committee will continue to review, edit and supplement to complete the job position project, contributing to effective staff streamlining, improving the quality of state management and ensuring fairness in salary payment.

- The Minister said the total amount of money for salary reform in the next three years is very large, up to 913,300 billion VND. How has this amount been prepared and how will the salary reform resources be implemented in the following years?

- According to the Ministry of Finance's calculations, the total budget for adjusting the basic salary by 30%, the bonus of 10% of the basic salary fund, adjusting pensions and cumulative allowances for the 3 years 2024-2026 must increase by 913,300 billion VND. While the previous estimate was only about 786,000 billion VND.

Although the country is facing difficulties in resources and must focus on economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic, by the end of 2023, the whole country has set aside 680,000 billion VND for salary reform. However, the whole system must continue to have solutions to increase revenue, save expenses, and find effective and feasible solutions to ensure adequate finances.

Funding sources will continue to be implemented from 5 sources in accordance with Resolution No. 27 of the Central Committee, including: Increased revenue sources and surplus sources of localities allocated for salary reform in previous years; Central budget sources; part of career revenue sources; from 10% savings to increase regular expenditures; sources from streamlining payroll.

In the coming time, based on the conclusion of the Politburo, the Central Economic Commission will preside over the preliminary review and assessment of difficulties and obstacles in implementing Resolution 27. In particular, it will build salary and allowance tables to amend and supplement them to suit the core issues in implementing salary tables according to job positions and leadership positions and titles.

At the appropriate time, the Central Executive Committee will give its opinion on this issue to thoroughly implement salary reform. The Government will clearly define the authority and responsibility of leaders in evaluating and classifying cadres, civil servants and public employees to pay salaries and bonuses according to job positions; the use of salary funds and regular expenditures to hire experts, scientists and talented people to perform the tasks of agencies and units; the application of additional salaries to some localities and the salary management mechanism for public service units.