10 New Policies on Recruitment and Salary Impacting All Officials and Public Employees from 2020

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1. officials and public employees to be evaluated according to new content

This is a notable content in the Draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Cadres, officials and Public Employees.

From 2020, besides the current evaluation criteria, officials and public employees will be evaluated on their job performance based on new content criteria, specifically:

- For officials: The evaluation will also be based on contents such as compliance with agency, organization, and unit regulations; results of task performance according to legal regulations, set plans, or specific assigned tasks; the progress and quality of task performance. The evaluation of task performance results must be linked to job positions and shown through specific work and products.

- For public employees: The evaluation will also be based on contents such as work results or task performance according to the signed working contract, according to the set plans or specific assigned tasks; the progress and quality of task performance. The evaluation of task performance results must be linked to job positions and shown through specific work and products.

2. Numerous public employees will have to sign fixed-term contracts

To be specific, according to Clause 2, Article 2 of the Draft Amendment and Supplement to Article 25 Law on Public Employees, from the date the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Cadres, officials and Public Employees comes into effect, all cases that have not implemented indefinite-term working contracts must sign fixed-term contracts, except for 3 cases enjoying lifetime public employee policies as follows.

- Public employees who have signed fixed-term working contracts before the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Cadres, officials and Public Employees comes into effect;- Cadres, officials transitioning to public employees;- Public employees who have completed fixed-term working contracts at public service providers in remote, isolated areas, or areas with extremely difficult socio-economical conditions.

Thus, if this regulation in the Draft is approved, from January 1, 2020, all public employees who have not previously signed indefinite-term working contracts and are not among the 03 "lifetime" public employees cases mentioned above must sign fixed-term contracts (terms from 12 – 36 months).

3. Salaries of officials and public employees will be paid according to job positions

According to the directive content in Resolution 27-NQ/TW on salary reform policy, in the public sector, the State pays salaries to officials and public employees and armed forces based on job positions, titles, and leadership positions, in line with the State's resources and public service revenue, ensuring reasonable correlation with salaries in the labor market.

Implementing the directive content in this Resolution and Plan 10-KH/TW on the implementation of the Seventh Conference Resolution, the Draft Law amending and supplementing the Law on Cadres, officials and Public Employees clearly defines job position as the basis for determining staffing, recruiting, utilizing, and paying salaries to officials and public employees.

4. The classification of officials by rank will be abolished

To be specific, according to the regulation in Clause 1, Article 34 Law on Officials 2008, currently, officials are classified into 04 types according to equivalent ranks as senior specialists or equivalent; chief specialists or equivalent; specialists or equivalent; officers or equivalent and staff.

However, according to Clause 4, Article 1 of the Draft amending and supplementing this content in the Law on Officials 2008, from January 1, 2020, the regulation on official rank classification as it currently stands will be abolished, and based on professional fields, officials will be classified according to equivalent official ranks, official ranks, and the rank hierarchy of each official rank linked to job positions and salaries will be detailed by the Government of Vietnam.

5. Many public employees will be accepted to become officials without examinations or recruitment

To be specific, according to Clause 5, Article 1 of the Draft amending and supplementing Article 37 of the Law on Officials 2008, in addition to the recruitment methods through examination or recruitment as currently applied, the head of the official management agency may decide to accept the following individuals as officials:

- Public employees working at public service providers.

- Cadres and officials at commune level.- Salaried persons in the people's armed forces; cryptographic personnel.- Persons holding titles and positions in enterprises which are single-member limited liability companies wholly owned by the State or assigned as state capital representatives holding management positions in enterprises where the State holds over 50% of charter capital.- Persons who have been officials from district level onward, then reassigned or rotated to become officials at commune level or transferred to work at public service providers, people's armed forces, cryptography, socio-political-professional organizations, social organizations, socio-professional organizations, or appointed to hold titles or positions in enterprises which are single-member limited liability companies wholly owned by the State or assigned as state capital representatives holding management positions in enterprises where the State holds over 50% of charter capital.

However, according to this Draft, those accepted as officials must meet all the requirements of the job position. To be specific, upon acceptance, they must have at least 05 years of working experience, excluding probationary period, in job positions requiring university or higher qualifications appropriate to the job position being recruited and must have compulsory social insurance contributions. If the period of social insurance contributions is not continuous without having received a lump-sum social insurance allowance, it will be accumulated.

6. No more officials in public service providers

To be specific, according to the regulation in Clause 1, Article 1 of the Draft amending and supplementing Clause 2, Article 4 of the Law on Officials 2008 on the official definition: “An official is a Vietnamese citizen recruited and appointed to a rank, title, or position corresponding to their job position in an agency of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the State, or socio-political organization at the central, provincial, or district level; in an agency or unit under the People's Army but not an officer, professional soldier, or national defense worker; in an agency or unit under the People's Public Security but not an officer, professional non-commissioned officer, or public security worker, within the staffing and paid from the state budget.”

It can be seen that according to this Draft, officials do not include individuals in leadership and management positions within public service providers of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the State, and socio-political organizations as currently regulated in the Law on Officials 2008.

7. Officials can be promoted without exams

To be specific, according to the regulation in Clause 8, Article 44 of the Draft amending and supplementing Article 44 of the Law on Officials 2008, promotion must be based on job positions, suitable with official rank structure of the agency, organization, and unit and carried out through promotion exams or promotion assessments.

Thus, the Draft has supplemented an additional form of promotion assessment besides the promotion exam as stipulated in the current Law on Officials 2008.

simultaneously, according to this Draft, officials who pass the promotion exam or assessment will be appointed to higher official ranks and assigned to corresponding job positions.

8. Extending the deadline for disciplinary action against public employees

To be specific, according to Clause 6, Article 2 of the Draft amending and supplementing Article 53 of the Law on Public Employees 2010, from January 1, 2020, the deadline for disciplinary action against public employees will be extended to 60 months from the time of the violation instead of 24 months as currently regulated.

Notably, for public employees who commit particularly serious violations as follows, the limitation period for disciplinary action will not apply:

“a) Public employees who are party members committing violations to the extent of being disciplined by expulsion;

b) Violations of internal political protection;

c) Acts harming national interests in the fields of national defense, security, and foreign affairs;

d) Using fake, unlawful diplomas, certificates, certifications, and confirmations.”

Note: The limitation period for disciplinary action is the period after which the public employee's violations will not be subject to disciplinary action.

9. officials will no longer face "demotion" discipline

To be specific, according to Article 79 of the Law on Cadres and officials 2008, currently, there are 6 disciplinary forms for officials, including: Reprimand; Warning; Salary reduction; Demotion; Dismissal, and Forced resignation.

However, Clause 13, Article 1 of the Draft has amended this regulation in the Law on officials 2008, accordingly, removing the form of Demotion discipline, leaving only the remaining 5 forms of discipline.

In which, the form of dismissal applies only to officials holding leadership and management positions; the form of salary reduction applies only to officials not holding leadership and management positions.

10. Cadres and officials after resignation or retirement can still be disciplined

To be specific, according to Clauses 14 and 15, Article 1 of the Law on Cadres, officials, and Revised Law on Public Employees, officials after resignation or retirement, who are later found to have committed violations during their time in office and have been disciplined by the competent authority regarding the Party, depending on the nature and severity of the violation, must face one of the following disciplinary forms: Reprimand; Warning; Dismissal from the position held at the time of the violation.

Additionally, the Revised Law on officials and Law on Public Employees has extended the disciplinary handling limitation period to 60 months from the time of the violation, instead of 24 months as currently stipulated in the Law on officials. The handling period for disciplining officials has also been extended to not more than 90 days instead of 2 months as currently, in case of complex situations requiring additional investigation and clarification, the disciplinary handling period can be extended but not exceeding 150 days.

Nguyen Trinh

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