Salary reform to make civil servants "wholehearted"

Recommendations from the grassroots

In the petition of the Vietnam Civil Servants' Trade Union Congress, salary reform is one of the two main contents sent to the Party and Government.

Discussing this issue, Ms. Le Thi Tuong Thu, Chairwoman of the Trade Union of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said that in the coming time, one of the activities to connect civil servants and public employees, helping everyone to complete their tasks well, is to ensure the regime and policies for civil servants and public employees, especially regarding salary.

Mr. Tran Duc Lam, State Audit Trade Union, said that the salary for union members and workers needs to be improved, especially for each specific job position, and salary reform in the new period. Therefore, the Civil Servants Trade Union proposed to soon implement the salary reform roadmap to meet the income of workers.

“In fact, the issue of salary reform has been raised since Resolution 27 of 2017, but due to difficulties, we have not been able to reform. Currently, the Party and the Government have paid great attention, on the one hand ensuring to improve the lives of civil servants, on the other hand still trying to retain them in the system, especially those who are capable, experienced and dedicated. Hopefully in 2024, we can reform salaries, helping to increase salaries for civil servants. If it becomes a reality, it will be good news for civil servants in the context of rising prices like today,” said Mr. Ngo Duy Hieu, Vice President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, President of the Vietnam Civil Servants' Trade Union.

6 contents of salary reform

According to Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra, the Government has proposed a roadmap for salary reform for cadres, civil servants, public employees and armed forces with 6 reform contents according to Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW (expected to be implemented from July 1, 2024), including: Building 5 new salary tables; Allowance regime; Bonus regime; Salary increase regime; Funding source for implementing salary regime; Salary and income management.

After 2024, continue to adjust wages to compensate for inflation and improve somewhat according to GDP growth until the lowest wage is equal to or higher than the lowest wage of region I (the highest region) of the business sector as the target set out in Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW.

Also according to the Ministry of Home Affairs, synthesizing reports from ministries, branches and localities, from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2022, the number of cadres, civil servants and public employees who quit their jobs was 39,552 people, equal to 1.94% of the total assigned payroll.

Of which, the number of employees in administrative agencies and organizations who applied for resignation or quit their jobs was 1,029 people, accounting for 10.19%. This number in public service units was 35,523 people, accounting for 89.81%.

The number of civil servants and public employees who applied for resignation or quit their jobs in ministries and branches was 7,102 people, accounting for 17.96% (civil servants were 1,505 people, accounting for 21.19%; civil servants were 5,597 people, accounting for 78.81%). The number of civil servants and public employees who resigned or quit their jobs in localities was 32,450 people, accounting for 82.04% (civil servants were 2,524 people, accounting for 7.78%; civil servants were 29,926 people, accounting for 92.22%).

Therefore, salary reform is urgent to retain talented people in the state agency system. Dr. Luu Binh Nhuong, Deputy Head of the National Assembly's Petition Committee, said: For state officials, civil servants, and public employees, there are many reasons for not being wholehearted, including issues of salary, income, policies, and rewards. Because wholeheartedness is also related to the sense of setting an example, sense of responsibility, and professional ethics.

Thus, salary is a very important issue. Because in some aspects, salary and income, material and spiritual reward systems are very powerful "leverages", the driving force of labor and creativity.

“However, if we want to increase salaries, we must first solve the problem of human resources. To solve the problem of human resources, we need to balance the salary fund. Thus, these two issues are closely linked together, we cannot talk about human resources without talking about salaries, we cannot talk about salaries without talking about human resources,” Dr. Luu Binh Nhuong emphasized.

Therefore, reforming and innovating the salary system must innovate the personnel system, reviewing the cadre work and personnel work to make it reasonable in terms of quantity and quality of people, and selecting people who are capable of taking on and managing at different levels. That means arranging the workforce and personnel reasonably, using people in the right profession and profession so that they can develop their strengths.

Meanwhile, Dr. Bui Sy Loi, former Vice Chairman of the Social Committee of the 14th National Assembly, said that salary reform on July 1, 2024 is the right and ripe time because we have postponed the reform time at least twice since 2020. The important thing is that we have taken a step to reduce staffing, reorganize the organization, and prepare resources.

Salary reform in current conditions is good news for civil servants and public employees, creating motivation for them to be interested in working, promoting increased labor productivity and attachment to the agency or unit.

Mr. Bui Sy Loi also said that, in the spirit of Conclusion 62, the Politburo set out requirements for salary reform to consider the specific characteristics of public service units with the aim of ensuring that salaries are distributed according to work capacity, training process, ability to contribute and ensuring the correct principle of distribution according to labor and salary arrangement according to job position.

Therefore, the goal of salary reform is to ensure that workers have enough to live on their salaries; in particular, it is necessary to consider regulating specific allowances for specific sectors; to retain workers working in those sectors or attract talented people with professional capacity to the public sector to overcome the situation of a number of cadres, civil servants and public employees shifting from the public sector to the private sector (such as the health and education sectors after 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The Politburo's request to closely follow the goals set out in Resolution 27-NQ/TW in 2018 on reforming salary policy is completely in line with the principles of salary payment, the principle of distribution according to labor and importantly, creating motivation to retain public sector civil servants, attract talented people, motivate the public sector apparatus, ensure a living wage so that officials do not have to "have one leg outside longer than the other", wholeheartedly perform the functions and tasks assigned according to their job position.

Another important meaning of reforming the salary policy, according to Mr. Bui Sy Loi, is that when there is a salary that is enough to live on or ensure family life and children's education, the mindset of being stingy, arrogant, seeking corruption, and negativity will also decrease.

However, in the current reality, Mr. Bui Sy Loi is still concerned that salary reform cannot reduce the income gap between the public and private sectors as in the spirit of Resolution 27. More importantly, when implementing salary policy reform, the total amount of money in circulation will increase, leading to an increase in the cost of living index. Therefore, if the Government does not have solutions to control inflation and stabilize market prices, then salary reform or increasing income for workers will no longer be meaningful.

Over the past years, Vietnam has saved VND500,000 billion to prepare for salary reform in 2024, 2025 and 2026 according to Resolution 27 of the 12th Party Central Committee. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh assigned the Ministry of Home Affairs to review and develop mechanisms and policies to implement the salary reform plan when approved by the Central Committee.