On April 19, the Bac Ninh Provincial Labor Federation organized a meeting and dialogue between the Provincial Party Secretary and the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee with trade union officials, union members, and workers in 2026.
Mr. Nguyen Hong Thai - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of Bac Ninh Provincial Party Committee; Mr. Pham Hoang Son - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Mr. Thach Van Chung - Member of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, Provincial Party Committee Member, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of the province, Chairman of the Provincial Labor Federation co-chaired the conference.
Mr. Ngo Duy Hieu - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Vice President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor - attended the conference.
At the conference, Mr. Pham Van Chung - Chairman of the Trade Union of Goertek Vietnam Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (Que Vo Industrial Park) stated the reality that businesses, especially non-state-owned enterprises, currently cannot arrange jobs for workers when they approach retirement age, especially direct workers. Due to requirements on health, labor productivity, and job characteristics, workers have to quit their jobs early, leading to losses in income as well as social insurance benefits when they have not reached retirement age.
Mr. Pham Van Chung proposed that provincial leaders propose to the Government to reduce the retirement age for workers to suit the actual lives of direct workers; and at the same time have a mechanism to support workers to continue working until they meet the conditions to receive a pension.
Mr. Tran Van Ha - Deputy Director of the Department of Home Affairs of Bac Ninh province said that currently, the retirement age of employees is implemented according to the roadmap of the 2019 Labor Code, and the 2024 Law on Social Insurance also has more flexible regulations for employees to choose suitable options such as early retirement when they meet the conditions, preserving the contribution period or continuing to participate in social insurance.
Regarding the proposal of the trade union chairman, Mr. Tran Van Ha said that the Department of Home Affairs will receive, summarize, and advise competent authorities to report and propose to central agencies to study in the process of perfecting policies.
In the coming time, the Department of Home Affairs will continue to coordinate with sectors, advise the Provincial People's Committee to continue to direct agencies, units, and businesses to pay attention to arranging more suitable jobs for older workers, strengthening retraining, supporting career change and better ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of workers.
Regarding the issue of social insurance debt, Mr. Ha Minh Vy - Chairman of the Nenh Ward Trade Union raised the reality that some businesses in the province are slow, owing social insurance with large amounts of money, for a long time, affecting the rights of workers, posing a potential risk of social insecurity.
Trade union officials proposed that the province have breakthrough solutions to thoroughly handle, publicize the list, and consider criminal handling for cases of intentionally evading social insurance contributions.
Regarding this content, Mr. Pham Hoang Son - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee asked if there have been any cases of evading social insurance contributions that have been criminally handled?
Mr. Tran Van Ha said that previously the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Bac Giang province (old) coordinated with Bac Giang Provincial Social Insurance (old), Bac Giang Provincial Police (old), but due to regulations, no cases of social insurance evasion have been criminally handled.
After grasping this information, Mr. Pham Hoang Son proposed that once the act of violating the law is correctly identified, and sufficient elements constitute a criminal violation, it is necessary to resolutely do it, and criminally handle it; do one case to warn.
At the conference, trade union officials and workers also raised many opinions related to policies and regimes for workers, such as: regional minimum wage, access to social housing, rent, electricity, water; periodic health check-ups for workers; traffic safety situation in industrial parks... Representatives of relevant departments, agencies, and sectors answered these contents.
Speaking at the conclusion of the conference, Mr. Nguyen Hong Thai - Secretary of the Bac Ninh Provincial Party Committee assessed that the dialogue took place frankly, raising outstanding and pressing issues that were not as desired. Emphasizing that these are not all issues of workers, he proposed strengthening dialogue in other ways to access information better.
The Secretary of the Bac Ninh Provincial Party Committee praised the Provincial Labor Federation for successfully organizing the conference; requested the Provincial Labor Federation to receive more and faster petitions from workers, and summarize them monthly and quarterly and send them to the Provincial Party Committee Office.
Mr. Nguyen Hong Thai committed that the province will continue to strengthen inspection and examination to strictly handle the issues raised in the conference, such as the issue of rent prices, electricity and water; evading social insurance contributions, protecting workers. Regarding social housing, the province will calculate appropriately so that workers have the best way to access social housing sources.
The province is committed to putting the interests of workers and businesses together with the socio-economic development of the province," Mr. Nguyen Hong Thai emphasized.
At the conference, the Bac Ninh Provincial Labor Federation honored 4 typical enterprises for workers in 2026; awarded certificates to 4 banks that actively accompanied the Trade Union and workers. On this occasion, the Provincial Labor Federation presented gifts to 100 workers.
