Need a special mechanism to support more than 200,000 workers with social insurance debt

According to the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, by the end of October, the total amount of social insurance (SI) and unemployment insurance that businesses had delayed paying or evaded paying nationwide was about VND14,650 billion. Of this, more than VND4,160 billion could not be recovered due to the dissolution, bankruptcy or business owners fleeing abroad.

According to this agency, the reason is that businesses are facing difficulties in production and business, their awareness of law compliance is not high, and the sanctions under current regulations are not strong enough to deter. Meanwhile, every month, employers deduct insurance premiums from employees' salaries, but do not fulfill their obligation to pay this amount to the insurance agency.

The consequence is that 200,000 workers are in debt to social insurance. This also means that many people are facing difficulties, not receiving pensions, maternity benefits when giving birth; They have to suffer many disadvantages, losing many legitimate benefits when risks such as work accidents, illness, resignation or retirement occur... Many experts believe that this is an unacceptable injustice, and businesses that evade paying social insurance must be properly and strictly handled.

Mr. Ngo Duy Hieu, Vice President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, said that one of the issues that the Trade Union organization is particularly interested in and wants to resolve completely is the proposal to resolve the social insurance benefits of workers and laborers, focusing on the proposal to resolve the benefits for 200,000 laborers who are owed social insurance.

Mr. Hieu is concerned that the most stressful issue for workers is the unemployment rate and underemployment, which is on the rise. At the same time, the situation of workers owing social insurance contributions also greatly affects the rights of this group of people. More than 200,000 people owing social insurance contributions will suffer many disadvantages, affecting their social security benefits. When they retire, they will not know how to live or what to rely on.

Need to strictly punish businesses that evade paying social insurance

Dr. Bui Sy Loi, former Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs, said that currently, many enterprises are evading social insurance payments and some business owners have fled Vietnam, including FDI enterprises, leading to a situation where employees have social insurance arrears of up to 200,000 people and have lasted for many years. This will affect the legitimate rights and interests of employees. Employees participate in social insurance but are not entitled to short-term benefits such as sickness, work-related accidents, occupational diseases, maternity, and are also not able to implement policies to resolve unemployment benefits, retirement, and death benefits for them. This is a very urgent issue, the Government has commented, and the National Assembly has also raised it many times. Recently, the 13th Congress of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor also expressed the opinion that this issue must be resolved and a solution must be found soon to resolve the benefits for more than 200,000 employees with social insurance arrears.

Accordingly, in the case where a business has paid into the social insurance fund and then goes bankrupt, it must pay the employees from this fund. In the case where the employee has paid social insurance to the business but the employer "embezzles" and does not pay into the social insurance fund, it is necessary to consider specific cases to handle and ensure the rights of the employees.

“The Vietnamese Social Insurance Law has stipulated that the issue of debt and evasion of social insurance payments cannot resolve the legitimate rights and interests of employees, so the Government must have a reporting plan to handle these issues. There are two options, the first option is that social insurance participants have paid for the business owner but the business owner absconds and does not pay for social insurance, leading to employees not being paid social insurance benefits, both short-term and long-term, then there needs to be a comprehensive solution to resolve policies for employees. The second option is that the support fund from the state budget can be used or it can be taken directly from the social insurance fund because the unemployment fund still has a lot of surplus,” said Mr. Bui Sy Loi.

According to Mr. Loi, in case the employee has not paid social insurance and the employer has not paid, it is clear that the employee has not participated in social insurance. This responsibility belongs to the agency managing the employee, meaning the enterprise does not collect from the employee and does not pay 14% for the employee, therefore, the social insurance agency does not have a list of these people and has no basis to pay the employee.

Therefore, the State must have a solution to help workers because the employers have fled, leaving no one to take care of the workers: “In my opinion, there must be a specific list of these 200,000 workers. It is necessary to close the number, year, day, month, number of years of social insurance contributions and the level of contributions, only then will there be a basis for resolution. We must focus on handling the workers thoroughly, should not let it drag on for many years, affecting the rights and legitimate interests of the workers”.

Regarding the situation of enterprises evading social insurance payments for employees, Mr. Loi said that business owners who employ employees and business owners who have labor relations with employees who are subject to compulsory social insurance but do not pay social insurance for employees need to have sanctions to deal with these enterprises strictly and decisively.

Along with that, it is necessary to reform administrative procedures. Employees pay 8% and sign properly, the Social Insurance agency can directly collect that 8%, the remaining 14% belongs to the employer. The employer must be responsible for paying to the Social Insurance, if not, the enterprise's participation in Social Insurance will be stopped and administrative violations will be handled. If the enterprise does not comply, it must request to suspend the business license of that enterprise, only then can the legitimate rights and interests of the employees be guaranteed.

“Compulsory social insurance must be handled according to the law if businesses violate the law. Businesses have participated in the production process, paid 14% of social insurance, the State has supported 25% of corporate income tax, businesses do not have to pay tax. With such support, businesses must see their responsibility. If not handled strictly, the situation of arrears and evasion of social insurance will become an eternal problem. With this bottleneck, we cannot have social policies, social insurance for all people and cannot ensure social security for the people. This is a very urgent issue today and it hinders the driving force for socio-economic development of the country,” Mr. Bui Sy Loi emphasized.