Many foreign enterprises are slow to pay social insurance and evade it
According to the reporter of Lao Dong Newspaper, the situation of foreign enterprises being slow and evading social insurance payments is happening painfully. In Bac Ninh, one of the areas with many large industrial parks, foreign enterprises are late in paying social insurance from a few billion to tens of billions of VND. Typically: Texon Semiconductor technologies Co., Ltd. is more than 11 billion VND behind; Seojin Auto Co., Ltd. is more than 5.1 billion VND behind; Seojin Vina Co., Ltd. is 7.4 billion VND behind; Seojin System Co., Ltd. is more than 2.6 billion VND behind.
In Hanoi, a similar situation is happening. Durian Company Limited (Vat Lai Commune, Ba Vi District) was late in paying nearly 7 billion VND for 34 months. Media Tenor VN Company Limited was behind for 108 months, with an amount of more than 2.8 billion VND. KONA Company Limited (Thanh Oai District) is nearly 1.1 billion VND behind with 19 months.
Not only are they late in paying social insurance, many business owners are currently missing and on the run. A typical example is Sun Vina Electronics Co., Ltd. in Tien Son Industrial Park (Bac Ninh). This enterprise was late in paying social insurance for 100 months with an amount of 2.1 billion VND. When the reporter came to record, the company's security guard said that the business owner had been on the run for many years.
Similarly, Han Technology Innovation Company Limited (Cau Giay District), represented by Koreans, was late in paying nearly 300 million VND in 9 months. When the reporter came to record, the headquarters was sealed and had not been in operation for more than a month. A receptionist said that no one had contacted the building management board, suspecting that the business had " abandoned its assets and fled for human life".
Mr. Nguyen Hong Cuong - Deputy Head of the Department of Revenue Management and Participant Development, Vietnam Social Insurance - said that currently the whole country has more than 30,000 FDI enterprises participating in social insurance, mainly concentrated in Bac Ninh, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City. Although most of them have fulfilled their obligations well, there are still a significant number of enterprises with slow foreign direct investment (FDI) capital, evasion, and even evasion, seriously affecting the rights of employees.
Handling FDI enterprises in violation is more difficult than domestic enterprises. Most of the assets of FDI enterprises are leased, or have been mortgaged to banks. When business owners withdrew from Vietnam, liquidating assets to recover social insurance debts was almost impossible. Current law does not have a strong enforcement mechanism such as seizure, asset freeze or suspension of operations. The administrative sanctions are not enough to deter. Criminal prosecution also faces many obstacles due to the lack of international legal cooperation mechanisms.
Completing solutions
One of the solutions expected to create a breakthrough is the application of criminal sanctions. The 2015 Penal Code stipulates the crime of evasion of social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance payment in Article 216. However, Mr. Nguyen Hong Cuong said that so far, no case has been prosecuted under this clause.
The main reason is that the regulation requires "ad administratively sanctioned but still violating" to have enough basis for criminal proceedings. In fact, most businesses are only administratively punished for the act of "delaying payment", not having enough elements to constitute "payment evasion". In addition, Article 216 also requires that the behavior must have deception or other tricks, but there are no specific instructions, leading to many different understandings.
The Social Insurance Law No. 41/2024/QH15 and the Health Insurance Law 2024 recently passed by the National Assembly have clearly supplemented acts of evasion and sanctions. However, it will not be until July 2025 that these regulations take effect. Vietnam Social Insurance said that it will coordinate the synchronous implementation of the new laws and the revised Penal Code to effectively handle violations.
For FDI enterprises, Vietnam Social Insurance also recommends strengthening international coordination and establishing a legal cooperation mechanism with countries with enterprises investing in Vietnam to handle the situation where business owners flee back to the country.
Respecting criminal liability is a necessary measure but will be the final measure. To improve the effectiveness of social insurance collection, especially for foreign enterprises, it is necessary to strengthen early prevention solutions.
According to Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Cuong, the current legal system has many tools to handle violations. However, to increase efficiency, it is necessary to promote the role of social insurance agencies in warning, reminding and publicizing information. Workers and representative organizations also need to proactively grasp the situation and request timely handling to protect their rights.
Lawyer Nguyen Thu Trang, Deputy Director of Heva Law Firm, commented: domestic and foreign enterprises must comply with social responsibility, especially the obligation to pay social insurance. However, FDI enterprises are highly unique, making it difficult to handle when legal representatives flee back to the country.
Lawyer Trang recommends applying stronger additional sanctions such as stopping the use of invoices, postponing exit for legal representatives of enterprises that owe social insurance for 12 months or more - similar to the handling of tax evasion. When necessary, the Social Insurance can request the bank to freeze the corporate account to collect the debt to the Social Insurance fund.
Need to increase the responsibility of social insurance
However, in reality, with many cases of evasion, evasion of payment, unpaid payment or not participating in social insurance for employees today, it shows that social insurance still faces difficulties, even a deadlock in protecting the rights of employees participating in social insurance.
According to regulations, when a business evades, evades payment, owes payment or does not participate in insurance for employees, the Social Insurance agency must be responsible for coordinating with relevant agencies to verify and record the actual working process of employees, creating a basis for supplementing the social insurance payment period later. At the same time, it guides employees to carry out procedures to denounce businesses for violating the law or file lawsuits to claim their rights.
Vietnam Social Insurance also has the authority to inspect independently or coordinate with the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, and provincial People's Committees to inspect units with signs of evasion and debt to pay social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance.
Social Insurance is responsible for publicizing on the Electronic Information Portal the list of enterprises that evade and owe social insurance contributions, helping employees clearly understand and proactively protect their rights.
Vietnam Social Security needs to increase its responsibility to monitor, record, protect the rights of employees, enforce debt collection, provide legal support and recommend policies in cases where businesses evade or violate their social insurance payment obligations.
Mr. Nguyen Hong Cuong - Deputy Head of the Department of Collective Management and Development of Participants, Vietnam Social Insurance: In recent times, the Social Insurance agency has drastically and synchronously implemented many solutions to limit the situation of late payment, evasion of social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance by enterprises. Typically, the Social Insurance has advised the Ministry of Finance to issue Official Letter No. 4860/BTC-BHXH dated April 15, 2025 to the Provincial Party Secretaries, City Party Committee Secretaries, Chairmen of People's Councils, Chairmen of People's Committees of provinces and cities to continue to strengthen leadership and direction in implementing social insurance and health insurance policies in the area.
The Social Insurance Agency has also signed a coordination regulations with ministries, branches, the Fatherland Front, mass organizations, news agencies, and the press at the central level to promote the dissemination of laws on social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance to employers and employees. Information about units that are late in paying or evading insurance payments is made public on mass media.
Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Cuong - Member of the 15th National Assembly - said that current law allows businesses to delay social insurance payment until one month after the salary payment period, and can even pay quarterly for some areas, creating conditions for them to prioritize paying salaries in advance. However, many businesses have taken advantage of this policy to occupy the social insurance fund, keeping the money that should have been paid to serve production and business. When businesses go bankrupt or close, this amount of money disappears, workers lose their rights, and the fund cannot collect it. Some enterprises also deliberately do not declare employees for insurance participation, causing employees' contributions to be retained without being recorded. Both late payment and evasion of payment directly harm the rights of workers and reduce social welfare. This situation is complicated, especially in foreign-invested enterprises with large labor scale.
According to information from Vietnam Social Security, in 2024 and the first 4 months of 2025, the entire Vietnam Social Security system conducted inspections and examinations at 22,928 units. As a result, the Social Insurance agency requested to collect social insurance contributions from 17,464 employees with an amount of VND 130.7 billion; 38,957 employees paid less than the prescribed level, the amount to be paid is VND 127.3 billion. The total amount of money that the units were late in paying before the inspection and examination decision was VND 2,106.8 billion; the amount recovered during the inspection and examination period was VND 1,099.8 billion.
