Abolition of Seniority Allowance for Preventive Medicine and Primary Healthcare Public Employees During the Implementation of the 2024 Salary Reform
Abolishment of Seniority Allowance for Preventive Healthcare and Primary Healthcare Public Employees with the Implementation of Wage Reform in 2024, Correct?
Recently, the National Assembly passed a resolution stipulating the execution of wage reform according to Resolution 27 effective from July 1, 2024.
Besides that, localities also have excess funds allocated for wage reform amounting to VND 208,457 billion. Thus, there is an excess budget of VND 263,000 billion to implement wage reform starting in 2024.
One notable point of the wage reform effective from July 1, 2024, is the abolition of seniority allowance for officials. The Resolution 27-NQ/TW of 2018 outlines the rearrangement of existing allowance policies, ensuring that the total allowance fund accounts for a maximum of 30% of the total wage fund, implemented as follows:
- Continue to apply the concurrent post allowance; exceeding seniority allowance; regional allowance; job responsibility allowance; mobility allowance; allowances for security, defense service, and specific force allowances (military, police, cipher).
- Merge the professional preferential allowance, professional responsibility allowance, and hazardous, dangerous allowance (collectively referred to as professional allowance) applicable to officials and public employees in professions and jobs with higher-than-normal working conditions and appropriate preferential policies of the State (education and training, healthcare, courts, procuracy, civil judgment execution, inspection, audit, customs, forestry management, market management,...). Merge the special allowance, attraction allowance, and long-term service support for regions with especially difficult socio-economic conditions into an allowance for work in these regions.
- Abolish the seniority allowance (except for military, police, cipher to ensure wage parity with officials); leadership allowance (for the positions considered as leadership positions within the political system); party, socio-political organization operational allowance; public service allowance (as it has already been included in the basic salary); hazardous, dangerous allowance (as the working conditions with hazardous elements have already been included in the professional allowance).
- Propose new allowance policies according to administrative unit classification for commune, district, and provincial levels.
- Consistently apply a fixed monthly allowance fund for non-specialized personnel at the commune level, villages, and neighborhood groups based on the regular expenditure ratio of the commune-level People's Committee; simultaneously, prescribe the maximum number of non-specialized personnel based on each type of commune, village, and neighborhood group. On this basis, the commune-level People's Committee submits to the People's Council of the same level to specifically stipulate the titles eligible for allowances, ensuring that one title can take on multiple jobs but must ensure the quality and efficiency of the assigned work.
The seniority allowance for officials will be abolished with the implementation of wage reform from July 1, 2024. However, for preventive healthcare and primary healthcare public employees, it is currently not within the scope of the seniority allowance according to the current regulations. Therefore, the abolition of the seniority allowance as per Resolution 27 does not affect these individuals.
In addition, preventive healthcare and primary healthcare public employees will continue to receive the professional preferential allowance as stipulated in the current regulations. Resolution 27 includes the merging of the professional preferential allowance, professional responsibility allowance, and hazardous, dangerous allowance into a professional allowance.
Thus, after the wage reform, preventive healthcare and primary healthcare public employees are still expected to receive this allowance.
Will the seniority allowance for preventive healthcare and primary healthcare public employees be abolished with the 2024 wage reform?
Current Professional Preferential Allowance Regime for Preventive Healthcare, Primary Healthcare Public Employees
Currently, Clause 7, Article 3 Decree 56/2011/ND-CP supplemented by Article 1 Decree 05/2023/ND-CP stipulates the professional preferential allowance policies from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2023, for preventive healthcare and primary healthcare public employees as follows:
7. The professional preferential allowance rate for preventive healthcare and primary healthcare public employees applies from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2023:
"a) A 100% allowance applies to public employees who regularly and directly perform preventive healthcare specializations (including border health quarantine); perform healthcare specializations at commune health stations, district polyclinics, maternity homes, district centers for district, town-level towns, provincial cities, cities under districts, provincial cities under central cities, and district-level hospitals under provinces, cities under central cities.
b) During the application period of the professional preferential allowance rate for preventive healthcare and primary healthcare public employees stipulated in this Clause 7, the provisions at point c Clause 2 and the provisions for public employees who regularly and directly perform preventive healthcare specializations in Clause 4, Article 3 are not applied."
The professional preferential allowance rate for preventive healthcare and primary healthcare public employees from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2023, is 100%.
Timeline for Wage Reform Implementation According to Resolution 27
The Resolution 27-NQ/TW of 2018 sets forth specific goals for wage reform from 2021 to 2025 with a vision to 2030 as follows:
* For the Public Sector
- From 2021, apply a new unified wage policy for officials and public employees, armed forces throughout the entire political system.
- In 2021, the minimum wage for officials and public employees is equal to the average minimum wage of enterprise zones.
- Periodically adjust the wage level in line with the consumer price index, economic growth rate, and the state budget's capacity.
- By 2025, the minimum wage for officials and public employees is higher than the average minimum wage of enterprise zones.
- By 2030, the minimum wage for officials and public employees is equal to or higher than the highest minimum wage zone of the enterprise sector.
* For the Business Sector
- From 2021, the State periodically adjusts the regional minimum wage based on the recommendations from the National Wage Council. Enterprises implement wage policies based on negotiations and agreements between employers and employees and their collective representatives; the State does not directly intervene in enterprise wage policies.
- Manage labor and wages in state-owned enterprises by the method of determining wage costs in association with business tasks until 2025, and towards fully delegating business tasks by 2030.
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