Adjusting the increase in retirement age and supplementing with many preferential policies for businesses employing a large number of female workers are notable provisions proposed to be included in the Draft Amendment of the Labor Code, expected to be submitted to the National Assembly in 2017.
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The Highlight Notable Updates in the Amended Labor Code 2017 (Illustrative Image)
After a period of implementation, the Labor Code 2012 has exposed many inadequacies such as certain provisions being too general and requiring implementation guidance, an incoherent system of documents, overlapping, and conflicting content causing difficulties in implementation. Particularly in the context of Vietnam participating in many free trade agreements, the Labor Code 2012 still fails to meet some requirements of international labor standards. The Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs is drafting a Law on Amendments and Supplements to certain provisions of the 2012 Labor Code to address the issues encountered during implementation as well as to ensure consistency between the Labor Law and other newly enacted laws, and to support the process of international economic integration.
In 2016 and 2017, the Government of Vietnam will present to the National Assembly the Draft Law on Amendments and Supplements to certain provisions of the Labor Code at the 3rd session in May 2017 and pass it at the 4th session in October 2017. The Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs proposes the following notable amendments:
Increasing retirement age for women to 58, men to 62
According to the provisions of the Labor Code 2012, employees who meet the conditions for social insurance payment as prescribed by the social insurance law are entitled to a pension when men reach 60 years old, and women reach 55 years old.
Given the trend of an aging population, the risk of breaking the fund due to the current high average life expectancy, the long period of pension payment, and to align with the common trend of many countries worldwide, the Ministry has proposed raising the retirement age for women from 55 to 58, and for men from 60 to 62. Increasing the retirement age affects almost all workers in society, causing much debate because increasing the retirement age comes with the pressure of creating jobs for the young labor generation.
The issue raised here is whether the increase in the retirement age is really necessary when there are still 400,000 people of working age unemployed, and the dismissal of workers over the age of 30 in export processing zones and industrial zones has not yet found a solution. It can be seen that some countries with retirement age regulations similar to ours are still performing very well, with private investment in labor, although they have retired, still contributing to society in various forms. Whether to raise the retirement age or not and if so, how to raise it specifically, needs to consider many aspects.
Many incentives for businesses employing many female workers
Female laborers are an important part of the workforce, currently accounting for approximately 48.8% of the social labor force, making up a large proportion in specific sectors and enterprises such as healthcare, education, garment, footwear, aquaculture, and seafood processing... Women of childbearing age have to some extent affected their mission execution time and labor productivity. Currently, some enterprises restrict the use of female laborers due to increased enterprise costs from having to implement policies for female workers. Therefore, introducing preferential policies to ensure the rights of female laborers and businesses operating in fields employing many female laborers is essential.
Resolving policies for workers with overdue social insurance (BHXH)
The situation of overdue, evaded social insurance (BHXH), health insurance (BHYT), and unemployment insurance (BHTN) payments directly affects the workers' benefits and each enterprise's production and business situation. In cases where employers do not pay BHXH, BHYT, BHTN for workers as required, workers are not entitled to the relevant social insurance policies when falling sick, pregnancy, occupational accidents, not entitled to the health insurance policies, or receiving unemployment benefits when losing their jobs...
There are many reasons for enterprises falling behind in insurance payments, such as difficult business situations or deliberately not paying insurance for workers. Whatever the reason, when falling behind in insurance payments, workers are the ones who suffer. The Labor Code and the Social Insurance Law 2014 have not provided regulations to resolve social insurance policies for workers when employers still owe social insurance. Therefore, it is necessary to consider supplementing regulations to address this situation.
