LookAtVietnam – Many enterprises and companies in HCM City were still not clear about their health and unemployment insurance obligations.

Several business representatives said they were following the regulations, but were told by local labour officials that they were not doing so.

Do Quang Khanh, deputy head of the HCM City Social Insurance Agency, said the unemployment insurance rule was so new that companies and enterprises had not understood it fully despite several explanations.

He acknowledged that organisations for paying unemployment insurance and providing vocational training were being set up slowly, so companies and enterprises were not yet familiar with them.

Khanh said enterprises and companies who have more than 10 employees are required to pay unemployment insurance for their employees who have signed indefinite-term labour contracts or contracts from 12 to 36 months. The city began to apply the rule in February this year.

The rule requires eligible employers and employees to contribute 1 per cent of the basic monthly salary towards unemployment insurance, Khanh said.

Beneficiaries will receive unemployment insurance worth 60 per cent of their average monthly salary or remuneration during six consecutive months prior to unemployment for between three months and a maximum of one year, he added.

Moreover, the unemployed will receive free health insurance cards as well as vocational training, and the city will attempt to find them new jobs, Khanh said.

To enjoy the benefits, they have to bring the unemployment insurance application and social insurance book to the district employment agencies, 25 of which have been set up by the city Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (DoLISA).

Khanh said around 34,000 enterprises and companies in HCM City were paying unemployment insurance, adding that his agency had prosecuted more than 70 enterprises and companies that had not paid their contributions for more than six months.

For the first six months of non-payment, the agency would send reminders to the enterprises and ask labour inspectors to impose fines.

Khanh said that employees played a key role in helping the agency find out and fine enterprises and companies violating their social insurance obligations. He encouraged employees to bring violations to the notice of the agency in order to ensure their benefits.

A representative of Sanyo Engineering&Construction Inc asked at the meeting if it was compulsory for foreign employees who work in Viet Nam to buy health insurance.

Khanh replied in the affirmative saying all foreign employees working in Viet Nam had to get health insurance and follow the same procedures as Vietnamese employees.

If enterprises do not carry out the regulation on buying health insurance for their foreign employees, they will be fined, he said.

Nguyen Van Xe, deputy head of DoLISA, said that the current number of foreign employees registered in HCM City was 16,800. More than 50,000 enterprises and companies are currently operating in the city, he said.

He said all foreign employees should have graduate degrees or documented evidence of at least five years of experience in the job they are doing legally in the country.

Nguyen Thi Dan, head of DoLISA’s salary and wages office, called for closer co-operation between labour, social insurance and taxation offices in order to help companies and enterprises clarify their obligations and ensure that employees get their due benefits.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News