New points worth noting
Compared with the 2013 Law on Employment, the draft Law on Employment (amended) has a number of major amendments and supplements.
The labor market management policy group supplements regulations on the labor market information system; supplements regulations on labor registration; supplements regulations on training, fostering, and updating knowledge and professional skills in employment services.
The policy group completes the unemployment insurance policy by adding subjects participating in unemployment insurance including: Employees with a fixed-term labor contract of 01 month or more (currently 03 months or more); Part-time employees, with monthly salary equal to or higher than the lowest salary used as the basis for compulsory social insurance contribution, ensuring consistency with the Law on Social Insurance 2024.
The draft law also amends the unemployment insurance contribution rate in the direction that in addition to employers and employees, the State also participates (up to 1%), guaranteed by the central budget.
The group of policies on vocational skills development supplements regulations on the purpose and content of vocational skills development; National vocational skills framework; Responsibilities of employers and educational institutions on vocational skills development; Support for vocational skills development activities...
The policy group promoting sustainable job creation regulates capital sources for job creation loans to improve the legal basis, ensure the consistency and uniformity of the law, contribute to increasing capital sources and improving the efficiency of job creation loans. In which, there is the participation of the central budget, the National Employment Fund, local budgets and capital sources of other organizations and individuals entrusted through the Social Policy Bank...
Expanding the loan target
Mr. Tran Duc Ninh (from Thanh Hoa) is an exported worker working at a plastic processing factory in Tochigi province, Ashikaga city, Japan.
On January 5, speaking with Lao Dong reporter from Japan, Mr. Ninh said that the first time he participated in labor export in 2015, he and his family had to work very hard to pay the fixed cost to the dispatching company in Vietnam of about 6,000 USD; not to mention other arising costs.
“I remember at that time, the total cost of the trip was about 180 million VND. The family only had less than 1/3 of the budget, the rest was borrowed. When I went to work in Japan, I saved my salary to pay gradually. At that time, I was not able to borrow any preferential capital sources,” said Mr. Ninh.
The revised Law on Employment is expected to stipulate that the subjects borrowing capital to work abroad under contract are workers working abroad under contract (not limited to 05 subjects as in the current Law), at the same time, it stipulates priority subjects for borrowing capital with lower interest rates and regulations to ensure flexibility and initiative for capital sources of localities, organizations, and other individuals entrusted to the Social Policy Bank...
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Le Quang Trung - former Deputy Director in charge of the Department of Employment (Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs) commented that the issue of lending capital to workers working abroad is an issue of particular concern to workers and their families. Many workers want to access and borrow capital from the Social Policy Bank, especially workers working in high-income markets such as Korea, Japan, Taiwan (China)...
“The Draft Law on Employment captures the right trend to create conditions for workers working abroad to borrow capital. However, it is necessary to consider the loan conditions, loan amounts, loan interest rates for each group of subjects (some subjects follow the bank's interest rate, agreement) and loan procedures; it is necessary to supplement and mobilize capital sources at all levels for this activity,” said Mr. Le Quang Trung.
