Teachers in Nghe An were charged with over 4.6 billion VND in insurance arrears and interest

On March 13, Mr. Vuong Hong Thai, Vice Chairman of Nam Dan District People's Committee, said that he is assigning schools and the Department of Education and Training to review the data. After completing the documents, the district will work with the provincial Social Insurance to find a reasonable and appropriate solution.

In early March, the Nam Dan District Social Insurance Department sent a notice to more than 300 teachers and school staff requesting to collect social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance. Of which, the principal debt was more than 1.9 billion VND, and the fine for late insurance payment was more than 2.6 billion VND.

On average, a person owes 38 - 50 million VND. Some teachers have retired but have not received their salary because they have not paid this amount.

During the period 2004 - 2014, due to a shortage of teachers, many districts were allowed to recruit contract workers. More than 300 of the above teachers were recruited, but their salaries were not increased according to regulations (usually every 3 years).

In 2006, the People's Committee of Nghe An province directed agencies to review and provide guidance on salary increases for this group. In Nam Dan district, in 2011, many teachers were "specially" granted 1-4 salary increases to compensate for the period of time they did not receive them before.

According to the district Social Insurance, these teachers should have only been promoted but not paid back wages. However, the district People's Committee later recruited them into the payroll and paid them back wages. The schools also did not instruct this group to pay the insurance premium or complete the paperwork to send to the Social Insurance for processing.

A junior high school teacher in Nam Dan district said he was reported to owe social insurance of more than 38 million VND, including 20 million VND in fines for late payment.

"If I had been notified right away when I received my back pay, I would only have to pay 5% of my social insurance. After decades, many people have to pay 20-30 million VND in interest, which is unreasonable," this person said.

Vice Chairman of Nam Dan District People's Committee Vuong Hong Thai said that the previous recruitment decision was humane, aiming to create conditions for teachers and long-term contract employees to be on the payroll and receive back pay.

"It is right that those who have not paid insurance must complete it. However, the parties need to meet and analyze who is responsible for this (the school or the teachers and staff)," he said.