HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam Social Security (VSS) will provide data as evidence for labour unions to sue enterprises that tried to avoid paying insurance for their employees.

This is part of a cooperation agreement signed yesterday by VSS and the Việt Nam General Confederation of Labour to ensure the rights and benefits of employees.

Every enterprise with more than 10 employees is supposed to jointly pay for their workers three types of insurance, namely social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance.

However, insurance debts have been reported as enterprises delay or avoid paying insurance for their employees.

VSS’s statistics shows that accumulated insurance debt by the end of July was some VNĐ14 trillion. 

Last year, insurance debt in Việt Nam reached more than VNĐ7.6 trillion (US$339.2 million).

Bùi Văn Cường, president of the Việt Nam General Confederation of Labour, said 102,900 enterprises and organisations across the country were reportedly in social insurance debt, affecting 2.66 million employees.

He said labour unions, on behalf of the employees, could sue employers who did not pay for insurance under the Civil Procedure Code approved last year, which came into effect in July this year.

“Data provided by VSS included the list of insurance debtors and their debts, which could be used as evidence to sue employers violating rules,” Cường said.

Previously, social security agencies were empowered to sue insurance debtors, but under the Law on Social Security 2014, which came into effect in January this year, the social security agencies could no longer do so.

Accordingly, in the first six months of this year, almost 1,400 cases related to insurance debts of some VNĐ300 million were taken to court by VSS but had not been resolved.

VSS General Director Nguyễn Thị Minh said suing insurance debtors was an effective measure to curb violations and ensure employees’ rights.

The courts had helped insurance agencies collect 16.3 per cent of insurance debts from enterprises, she said. — VNS