Efforts made to observe rights of foreign workers’ social insurance

Bilateral agreements for a new generation of social insurance policy have been negotiated to support foreign workers engaging in Vietnam’s social insurance scheme, said Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Social Security (VSS) Dao Viet Anh.

Illustrative photo. (Source: VNA)

Addressing a VSS conference in Hanoi on November 2, Anh said that under Decree No.143/2018/ND-CP detailing the Law on Social Insurance and Law on Labour Safety and Hygiene, foreigners working in Vietnam with a work permit, practice certificate, or practice licence granted by competent Vietnamese authorities and under indefinite-term labour contracts or contracts with a term of one full year and over shall be subject to compulsory social insurance.

They shall be entitled to the following social insurance regimes – sickness, maternity, workplace accident, occupational disease, retirement, and survivor allowance.

Those temporarily transferred from parent companies abroad to subsidiary firms in Vietnam or reaching the retirement age shall not be subject to the compulsory social insurance scheme.

Deputy head of the VSS Deparment of Social Insurance Policy Implementation Dinh Thi Hien stated that currently, foreigners have yet to join social insurance in Vietnam, so from December 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021, they are not subjected to compulsory insurance.

From January 1, 2022, foreign labourers who are subjected to the compulsory social insurance scheme must pay 8 per cent of their salary stated in their contract to the retirement and survivor fund as their Vietnamese peers do.

For employers, from December 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021, they must pay insurance for employees to the fund for sickness, maternity, workplace accident, and occupational disease. From January 1, 2022, employers must pay an additional 14 per cent of their monthly salary fund to retirement and survivor insurances.

According to statistics by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MoLISA), the number of foreign employees in Vietnam increased from 63,557 in 2011 to 83,046 in 2016. They mostly come from Asian countries like China, the Republic of Korea, and Japan, accounting for 73 per cent of the total, followed by European nations (21.6 per cent) and American countries (2.4 per cent).

Those having employment less than one year only makes up 4.4 per cent, which manifests the local demand on and sustainability of foreign workers in the country.

Meanwhile, the number of Vietnamese employees sent to work abroad is on a rise. The MoLISA estimated that nearly 479,600 guest workers departed to work in foreign countries from 2011 – 2015.

VSS Deputy General Director Anh said that the VSS has finished the fourth round of negotiations with the Republic of Korea, one of Vietnam’s biggest bilateral overseas labour partners.

The VSS has also been implementing necessary negotiation processes with Japan and Germany, as well as all countries with overseas labourers in Vietnam.

Anh added that based on regulations in some nations, the fact that Vietnam covers foreign employees with social insurance and the bilateral deals will create opportunities for Vietnamese workers abroad to get access to social insurance schemes of the nations they are working in./.

VNF/VNA