A people receives retirement pension at a social insurance office. — Photo baohiemxahoi.gov.vn

HÀ NỘI – The implementation of the Social Insurance Law has been a confusing process, said Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs Bùi Sỹ Lợi.

In a conference regarding the late promulgation of the law’s guiding document on Monday, Lợi said the law is good on paper, but in practice, many people have found its regulations to be confounding.

The law concerns the rights of millions of workers and specifies regulations related to work entitlements and compensation for pregnancy and sick leave, work accidents and retirement. It has been in effect since the beginning of the year.

Workers and enterprises in the south have reportedly had the most difficulties.

Lợi suggested that leaders of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Việt Nam Social Insurance should take a field trip to meet workers and gain an understanding of the current situation.

Cao Văn Sang, director of the HCM City Social Insurance, said the process of recovering social insurance debt has been challenging because the handling of cases in court has taken too long, thereby allowing enterprises to disperse and hide their properties.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Phạm Minh Huân said that two decrees and several circulars under the law have not been enforced.

“The law was promulgated, but the guidance documents that have not been promulgated will create obstacles for the law implementation,” said Huân.

Deputy Chairman of the Việt Nam General Confederation of Labour, Mai Đức Chính, said that at the end of last year, several enterprises sold their workshops and properties to other enterprises to flee from their social insurance creditors. As a result, old enterprises disappeared, and new ones refused to pay the debt of dozens of billions of đồng.

“The workers were held hostage by social insurance offices and enterprises because when the enterprises did not pay the insurance, the workers’ rights, including coverage for sickness, pregnancy, accidents and retirement, were not protected,” he said.

Chính proposed to add a regulation about protecting workers’ rights when employers evade responsibility.

"The obstacle is that the Social Insurance Law was put into effect at the beginning of this year, but the Law on Civil Procedures won’t be put into effect until July, so the workers have to wait," Chính said.

Concluding the conference, Deputy Chairman Lợi urged concerned ministries and sectors to submit necessary decrees to the Prime Minister for approval and promulgation.

The guidance documents and decrees must not create difficulties for workers, Lợi said, adding that administrative procedures must be simple and easy to access.

“We think that it’s not important if the decrees are promulgated one month or three months late, but in fact the workers wait for the decree every day, every hour,” he said. — VNS