Expanding coverage of unemployment insurance
Mr. Vu Hong Quang - Deputy Head of the Department of Legal Policy and Labor Relations (Vietnam General Confederation of Labor) - said that expanding unemployment insurance policies for workers in the informal sector is an important step to protect the rights of workers and contribute to the development of a more sustainable and equitable labor market.
According to Mr. Quang, Vietnam is currently and will continue to implement new economic models, such as a technology platform economy... to create a new group of workers (technology workers, freelance workers in a sharing economy, remote workers...). However, this group of workers has not been confirmed to be beneficiaries of policies and their jobs also have many potential risks.
Moreover, Mr. Quang said that this group of workers is mostly young workers with good incomes, so if they are attracted to participate, it will ensure their benefits and expand their coverage of unemployment insurance. At the same time, this is also a group facing a high risk of unemployment, so it is necessary to enjoy employment regimes and policies.
Mr. Quang proposed that the main groups of subjects that need to be targeted to expand policy coverage include: Public employees without labor contracts; workers moving to urban areas; workers working in collective enterprises/ rural cooperatives; workers working on technology platforms and other cases...
Mr. Quang said that expanding the number of participants in unemployment insurance can be designed as a voluntary unemployment insurance policy. Accordingly, employees participating in voluntary unemployment insurance also enjoy similar benefits such as compulsory unemployment insurance, including unemployment benefits, vocational training support, job consultation and referral.
Hope to receive unemployment benefits to reduce difficulties if you lose your job
In response to the information suggesting cases where technology workers are eligible to participate in voluntary unemployment insurance, Ms. Nguyen Le Thuy (character's name has been changed), a delivery staff of a smart delivery application, expressed her agreement and support.
Ms. Thuy has been a delivery worker since 2017 and is the main breadwinner in the family. She is currently participating in voluntary social insurance. "I want to participate in unemployment insurance so that if I lose my job, I can have a subsidy like other compulsory social insurance participants. Like many other workers in the formal field, we also face the risk of losing our jobs for different reasons" - the female shipper born in 1986 proposed.
According to Article 43 of the 2013 Law on Employment, employees subject to compulsory participation in unemployment insurance when working under the following types of labor contracts or employment contracts: indefinite-term labor contracts, indefinite-term employment contracts; fixed-term labor contracts, fixed-term labor contracts; seasonal labor contracts or under a certain job with a duration of 3 months to less than 12 months; in case the employee signs and is performing many of the above-mentioned labor contracts, the employee and the employer of the first signed labor contract are responsible for participating in unemployment insurance.
There are currently no regulations on participating in voluntary unemployment insurance.
