The trade union believes pregnant women should receive more heath check ups. Photo baochinhphu.vn

HÀ NỘI – The amount of money given to mothers when they have a child is too low, according to the trade union of the education sector.

In the draft Law on Social Insurance (amended), a proposal was made to pay benefits of VNĐ2 million (US$80) per child at birth.

But the trade union claims this amount does not meet the costs during pregnancy and childbirth.

The draft law proposes the benefit is paid in cases where the child dies or is stillborn.

The union suggested increasing the amount to ensure the implementation of the policy of encouraging and attracting more people to participate in voluntary social insurance.

The minimum monthly subsidy level must be equal to the rural poverty standard and cover costs for four months after a baby is born.

The cost of maternity benefits is guaranteed by the State Budget and shared with social insurance funds aiming at achieving the goal of universal coverage for all mothers giving birth in Việt Nam.

The union also said that, during the implementation of the 2014 Social Insurance Law, there were no documents providing specific guidance on leave time and allowances for pregnant female workers who have to take leave as prescribed by a medical examination and treatment facility and there were no regulations on whether the period of pregnancy leave is counted as social insurance or health insurance payment time or not.

The union proposed to supplement regulations on leave time and allowance levels for pregnant employees who must take time off work to take care of their pregnancy as prescribed by competent medical examination and treatment facilities.

Along with that, if a pregnant employee takes maternity leave for more than 14 working days in a month, it is counted as social insurance payment time and health insurance is paid by the social insurance fund.

Regarding maternity benefits, the provisions of Clause 1, Article 56 of the draft Law on Social Insurance (amended) stipulates: "The employee's one-month maternity benefit is equal to 100 per cent of the average salary as a basis for social insurance payment for full six months before leaving work to enjoy maternity benefits.”

The union believes that this regulation needs to be reviewed to be consistent with international practices.

The International Labour Organisation’s Convention No. 183 states that cash benefits should not be less than two-thirds of the woman's earnings prior to taking leave, while Recommendation No. 191 encourages raising the benefits to the full amount of previous earnings.

Currently, many countries such as Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, China, Spain and Netherlands all stipulate a subsidy level equal to 100 per cent of the employee's salary before taking maternity leave, according to the union.

To ensure better benefits for employees and in accordance with the general trend of many countries, the draft needs to stipulate the level of maternity benefits calculated on the monthly salary paid for social insurance of the month before taking maternity leave.

The draft Law also needs to be adjusted in the direction of increasing the number of time off work to go for prenatal checkups to seven times as compared to five in the current law and the female employees can quit their job to enjoy social insurance in case they have to go for prenatal check-ups more than seven times as prescribed by a doctor, the union said. VNS